The last OSCE office was closed in the South Caucasus because of Azerbaijan. The Baku office was closed in 2015, the mandate of the OSCE Mission to Georgia ended in 2008 December, months after the Russian-Georgian war, at the request of the Russian side, and now the Yerevan office closed. There are opinions that this step was driven not only by interests of Azerbaijan but also the RF.
The expert of the Armenian Center for Democracy, Security, and Development, the former head of the Foreign Ministry’s NATO Department, Marta Ayvazyan was asked whether that is true. She noted, “Back in 2007, Russia, ceasing its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, virtually destroyed the security mechanism, so important to Armenia, which was limiting and controlling the number of conventional armed forces in the OSCE member states, including Azerbaijan. I think that Azerbaijan has initiated the process of the OSCE office closure at least in agreement with Russia, and it may also be conditioned by long-range purposes of Russia in the Karabakh conflict settlement process”.
Emma GABRIELYAN
