OSCE MG aspires to freeze Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
By Laman Sadigova
Azerbaijan has lost its credibility on the OSCE Minsk Group, who is brokering the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for over 20 years without any effect achieved so far.
Baku has repeatedly criticized the inefficient activities of the 'trio' of international mediators representing the U.S., Russia and France, but now there are real reasons to suspect their disinterest in resolving the conflict.
The OSCE Minsk Group did not take any steps to move the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from a standstill, hereby leading to a broad gap in the peace process. Despite making competent proposals to achieve a solution to the problem, the mediators just got satisfied with declarative statements in fact keeping the status quo.
The OSCE Minsk Group monopolized the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and is trying to prevent the imposition of the conflict for discussion in the framework of international organizations.
The Minsk Group, to somehow justify its importance and significance, commit random acts, trying to create illusion of importance and to impose its will on other international institutions.
The mediators recent statement counteracting the discussions of two reports on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict at the PACE session indeed showed their unwillingness for a peaceful settlement of the problem.
"We remind the Assembly, as well as other regional and international organizations that the Minsk Group remains the only accepted format for the talks," reads the statement of the co-chairs of the OSCE MG.
"We appreciate the interest of members of the Assembly, but the urge not to take steps that could hurt the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group or hamper the continuation of the negotiations."
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a report on inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan who are deliberately deprived of water at its Winter Session in Strasbourg but the second report “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan" was not adopted.
During the meeting dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the First Youth Forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that "Armenia is delaying the negotiation process while the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen aspire to freeze the conflict, rather than resolve it. They do not put pressure on Armenia, but also protect it from possible problems."
The organization does not take a single step to resolve the situation, and prevents any outside initiative to positively affect the conflict. What role dose the Minsk Group hold on the problem then?
20-year of slack activity gives grounds to say that the chairmen are not interested in a fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and try to leave the issue in the format of "frozen conflict", renewing it for many years.
Azerbaijani officials earlier criticized the OSCE and its actions, calling its chairmen “tourists”, but now they subject credibility of the organization.
Indeed, the OSCE is trying to demonstrate the activity because its actions do not go beyond an imitation of flurry activity -- a half policy completely exhausted its potential.
To be frank, the OSCE MG lacked any sympathy in public in Azerbaijan long ago, but now the public organizations urge to reject their services.
The Association for Civil Society Development (AVCİYA) called on the Azerbaijani government to cease cooperation with the OSCE Minsk Group over the painful problem of the nation, which lost 20 percent of its territory as a result of Armenian aggression. The statement said that the intervention of the OSCE Minsk Group in the activities of the PACE was a gross violation of international law. "The OSCE Minsk Group has no legal basis to interfere in Azerbaijan's attempts to seek justice in other international organizations," the public union said in its statement. "It tries to keep in its monopoly of conflict resolution.”
Despite the presence of specific proposals in the negotiations, the OSCE does not put high on agenda them in the settlement process, but only focusing on secondary issues.
“The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs are incapable of fulfilling their mission even on a normal level, not to mention a high level,” Novruz Mamedov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration’s foreign relations department, said.
Experts think that the chairmen do not strive to solve the conflict because they have perfect conditions for staying in Azerbaijan – big salaries and as it can be seen, the lack of work.
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