Azerbaijan has once again attacked the OSCE Minsk Group, using its appropriate diplomatic lexicon. One of the reasons was the refusal of the French and US ambassadors to travel to the occupied Shoushi. We welcome this waiver and consider it an important political and humanitarian step.
However, the reasons for Azerbaijan’s actions to break up the Minsk Group lie elsewhere. The main reason for Baku’s interest in the collapse of the OSCE Minsk Group, and, in particular, the institution of this group’s co-chairmanship, is that through this, Azerbaijan is trying to destroy the de-facto and de-jure international diplomatic status of Artsakh, which is a recognized party to the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict and negotiation process. And most of the relevant documents, statements and other political and legal acts are in the sphere of activity of the Minsk Group and the Minsk process.
The disbandment of the Minsk Group and the co-chairing of this group, according to the logic of #Baku, should actually level the de-facto and de-jure international diplomatic status of Artsakh.
Here Baku and #Ankara act together, making every possible use of the contradictions between Russia and the collective West, which also affects the activity of the co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group. But this emotional flirting, through which the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance is trying to deceive Russia, is naturally tactical and temporary in its nature.
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It is quite obvious that both Turkey and Azerbaijan are doing everything possible to undermine the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh, knowing full well that with Russia’s withdrawal, Artsakh will also be destroyed, the destruction of Artsakh in its turn will lead to tectonic #geopolitical shifts in the Transcaucasus and in adjacent vast geopolitical spaces, which will create existential threats for a number of countries, primarily for Russia. This poses a threat, by the way, to the
West as well, just in the longer term.
It is also possible that such a maximalist policy of Baku is also aimed at this kind of blackmail to achieve the inclusion of Turkey in the co-chairing countries of the Minsk Group as a kind of compensation for Baku to soften its tough position.
I am confident that this and many other things are well understood in Moscow, Washington, and Paris.
It is also obvious that the OSCE Minsk Group and its current co-chairmanship have no alternative yet.
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Artsakh David Babayan
