Azerbaijan Attacks the OSCE Minsk Group Again: Babayan

We welcome this withdrawal and consider it an important political and humanitarian step. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh, David Babayan, on his Facebook page.

“Azerbaijan has once again attacked the OSCE Minsk Group, using its characteristic diplomatic language. One of the reasons was the refusal of the ambassadors of France and the USA to visit the occupied Shushi. We welcome this withdrawal and consider it an important political and humanitarian step. However, the reasons for Azerbaijan's actions to disrupt the Minsk Group are rooted elsewhere. The main reason for Baku's interest in dismantling the Minsk Group and, in particular, the institution of its co-chairmanship is that Azerbaijan is attempting to eliminate the de facto and de jure international diplomatic status of Artsakh, which is recognized as a party to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its resolution negotiations. Most relevant documents, statements, and other political and legal acts are under the jurisdiction of the Minsk Group and the Minsk Process. According to Baku's logic, the dissolution of the Minsk Group and its co-chairmanship should destroy Artsakh's de facto and de jure international diplomatic status.

In this context, Baku and Ankara are acting together, taking full advantage of the existing contradictions between Russia and the collective West, which also impacts the activities of the co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group. However, this emotional courtship through which the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance seeks to please Russia is, of course, a tactical and temporary step. It is evident that both Turkey and Azerbaijan are doing everything possible to undermine the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh, fully aware that without Russia, Artsakh will also be destroyed, and the destruction of Artsakh will lead to tectonic geopolitical shifts in the South Caucasus and adjacent enormous geopolitical areas, creating existential threats for several countries, primarily for Russia. This, by the way, also poses a threat for the West, albeit in the long term.

It is also possible that Baku's such maximalist policy is aimed at obtaining a sort of compensation by including Turkey in the ranks of the co-chairing countries of the Minsk Group through this kind of blackmail to soften its hard stance. I am confident that Moscow, Washington, and Paris understand this and many other matters well. It is also evident that the OSCE Minsk Group and its current co-chairmanship have no alternatives yet,” he wrote.