The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group can now be officially dissolved since the issue it was founded to address has been resolved, according to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
During a meeting with OSCE Chair Jan Borg in Baku on Tuesday, Aliyev advocated for the elimination of other mechanisms, which he referred to as "vestiges of the past," notably the High-level Planning Committee and the Institute of the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office, which the Azerbaijani leader characterized as "absolutely inactive."
He stressed that the OSCE budget can be used for more important projects.
The Azerbaijani leader pointed out that the Karabakh conflict has already been settled, with Azerbaijan "having secured its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Currently, Baku and Yerevan are engaged in a "bilateral normalization process," he said.
Established in 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by France, Russia, and the U.S., aimed to facilitate the resolution of the decadeslong Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently working to normalize their relations after Azerbaijan regained full control of the Karabakh province that had been under the illegal occupation of Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian separatists since the 1990s.
A six-week war in 2020 resulted in Azerbaijan liberating large parts of the breakaway region, and in September 2023, Azerbaijani forces launched a lighting blitz that forced Karabakh's Armenian "authorities" to capitulate in negotiations mediated by Russian forces.
Since December, the sides have been struggling to begin negotiations on a peace treaty, key parts for which were demarcating borders and establishing regional transport corridors through each other's territory.
In a historic breakthrough, the neighbors late last month reached an agreement over a stretch of border that would cut through four Azeri villages in Armenia's Tavush province, meaning that Armenia would return some more territory to Azerbaijan. Authorities on both sides announced they had installed the first border marker, although it wasn’t immediately clear where exactly it was placed.
Armenian Premier Nikol Pashinyan recently said the sides may sign a peace treaty before November, pointing to bilateral talks between their foreign ministers in Almaty last Friday.
Pashinyan last month warned the Caucasus nation needs to quickly define the border with Azerbaijan to avoid a new round of hostilities.
The four abandoned settlements that are to be returned to Azerbaijan, namely Lower Askipara, Baghanis Ayrum, Kheirimly and Gizilhajili, were taken over by Armenian forces in the 1990s, forcing their ethnic Azerbaijani residents to flee.
The area is strategically important for landlocked Armenia. Several small sections of the highway to Georgia, vital for foreign trade, could end up in the territory to be returned to Azerbaijan. The delimited border will also run close to a major Russian gas pipeline, and the area has advantageous military positions.
Earlier in April, Russia began withdrawing its forces from Karabakh, where they have been stationed as peacekeepers under a truce brokered by Moscow that ended the 2020 war.
Armenia on Tuesday arrested 38 people who were protesting against Pashinyan's political course, namely plans for normalization with Azerbaijan.
The protesters on Monday blocked the streets in the capital Yerevan, hindering traffic, demanded Pashinyan's resignation and did not adhere to the legitimate demands of the police, the Interior Ministry said.
Archbishop Bagrat, the spiritual leader of the Tavush for the Motherland opposition movement, had called for pressure on the authorities through actions of civil disobedience.
The clergyman opposes Pashinyan's decision to return border villages in the Tavush region to Azerbaijan and worries that the prime minister's Western-leaning policies may introduce ideas in Armenia that oppose Christian values, threatening the stability of religious beliefs.
