The last visit of the OSCE Minsk co-chairs to Artsakh was in late 2019. The reason their visits were delayed was first the pandemic, then the 44-day war, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh, Davit Babayan, describes them as purely technical obstacles. At Wednesday’s press conference, answering the question regarding the co-chairs’ visit, Davit Babayan said, “An important obstacle, politically, is Azerbaijan, which is trying to prevent or complicate their visit to the region. Of course, we are in touch with them. You know that I also participated in that meeting with the President of Azerbaijan and the newly appointed Co-Chair of the Russian Federation in Yerevan (photo from that meeting – ed.), which we appreciate because such a meeting can be considered one of the meetings with the co-chairs. There have been frank discussions on various issues.”
Davit Babayan hopes that the visit of the co-chairs to the region, particularly to Artsakh, will take place one day. He considers it natural that Azerbaijan will try to prevent this. “Recently, we saw the statement of the President of Azerbaijan. In fact, according to that logic, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing should be closed. But, of course, I do not think that the Minsk Group co-chairs will give in to that blackmail and Azerbaijan will achieve its goal. Achieving goals is difficult, but it is much easier to prevent them.” In Artsakh, at least, they are waiting for the co-chairs’ visit, but they are connected through different channels and are able to convey information about the processes and Artsakh’s positions to the co-chairs.
Nelly Grigoryan
