On September 21, 2011 the Republic of Armenia celebrated the 20^th anniversary of its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This 20-year route was both joyful and bitter: was full of achievements and losses, satisfaction and disappointment.  

In 2004, the European Union (EU) began to shift its focus in foreign policy towards its neighbors in the East. Not only did eight Eastern European countries join the EU, the political union also developed the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) which aims to engage the countries at the border of the newly enlarged EU. As a key principle, this plan involves a deeper economic integration to achieve prosperity and stability in the participating countries...

Different conflicts have led to the establishment of refugee communities in the Republic of Armenia, with two major ones being the Nagorno-Karabakh and Iraq war. Refugeeism in Armenia is thus a phenomenon that emerged in the beginning of 1988.

The case study analyses the mediation attempts into Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  The paradigmatic model consisting of three models - Rational Actor, Organizational, and Governmental Politics - borrowed from Allison (1971), is utilized to analyze the mediation attempts from three different viewpoints.  Two periods of conflict are analyzed - 1988-1991, when Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was an internal conflict of the Soviet Union, and 1992-1998, when, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conflict acquired an inter-state character.