Baku Dismisses OSCE Minsk Group’s Role in Peace Talks, Calls It Obsolete

Baku has once again rejected the OSCE Minsk Group’s return as a mediator in Azerbaijan-Armenia peace negotiations, calling it an obsolete and ineffective tool.

Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, stated that Armenia – encouraged by some of its backers – has been attempting to preserve the OSCE Minsk Group, a defunct mechanism that no longer serves any purpose.

According to Azertag, on Thursday, Hajiyev emphasized in a statement to journalists that there is no longer any need for the Minsk Group.

“If anyone tries to revive the Minsk Group, such attempts are nothing more than utopian ideas,” he said.

He recalled that the Minsk Group was originally established to facilitate the resolution of the conflict. However, with the conflict ending in 2020, there is no longer any role for the group, rendering it a redundant instrument. Now, according to Hajiyev, Yerevan must focus on priority issues that can accelerate normalization efforts.

“We believe that addressing issues such as amendments to Armenia’s Constitution will create better conditions for advancing the peace agenda in the region. As President Ilham Aliyev has emphasized, there are certain aspects of Armenia’s Constitution that must be amended. This is fundamental to establishing lasting peace in the region,” he stated, adding that there are still territorial claims against Azerbaijan in Armenia’s constitution.

In the early 1990s, the OSCE Minsk Group assumed the role of mediator in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the latter’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched a full-scale war against Azerbaijan, which ended in a ceasefire in 1994. The war resulted in Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. More than 30,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed, and one million others were expelled from their lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

At the height of the war in 1993, the United Nations adopted four resolutions demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied lands. However, Armenia did not comply, dashing hopes for a political solution while simultaneously preparing for the next military phase of the conflict.

Diplomats from the US, France, and Russia served as the Minsk Group’s co-chairs, leading international efforts to find a durable solution to what was once one of the most dangerous regional conflicts. Despite decades of shuttle diplomacy, negotiations remained deadlocked, with no breakthroughs.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict reignited after Armenia’s forces illegally deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the ensuing counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from Armenian occupation. The war ended on November 10, 2020, with a tripartite statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, under which Armenia returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

Before the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war, the Minsk Group’s lack of progress repeatedly drew harsh criticism from Azerbaijani authorities. Shortly after the war, President Aliyev said that the group had failed to resolve the conflict despite its internationally recognized mandate.

The fate of the Minsk Group was reportedly called into question by its mediating countries – the US and France – in April 2022. At the time, Washington and Paris refused to continue cooperation with Moscow within the “troika” format due to the invasion of Ukraine. This decision also undermined Armenia’s attempts to involve the group in peace agreement talks with Azerbaijan.

In June 2024, during a phone conversation with former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Aliyev reiterated that the dysfunctional OSCE Minsk Group and all its associated institutions must be permanently disbanded.