Expert blog: Why Azerbaijan is displeased with OSCE MG activities?

The deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential staff, head of the foreign relations department Novruz Mamedov declared that the Co-chairs of Minsk Group on the Karabakh conflict settlement do not take concrete steps.

The statement of one the key figures of the Azerbaijani presidential staff shows that Azerbaijan misinterprets the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs as an effective format of the negotiating process.

The priority mission of the mediators is a search for ways of the Karabakh conflict settlement and the implementation of an intermediary mission concerning negotiations in the absence of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

One can discuss long the efficiency of actions and steps of the OSCE Minsk Group, but these discussions are unimportant when no proposals on an alternative are made in this context.

The absence of an alternative and discrediting the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs leads to an option of the problem’s military solution, which has no future – first of all for the reason that problems are not finally solved by military means.

Azerbaijan openly declares that it expects the OSCE Minks Group Co-chairs to do the following: get unilateral concessions from Armenia by threats of force. In this situation Azerbaijan’s discontent becomes clear. No one hands concessions to this country on a silver plate.

This policy of Azerbaijan not only prevents the sides from reaching an agreement by means of mutual compromises, but also calls into question the possibility of resolving the conflict through negotiations.