Armenia yet to ask OSCE to disband Minsk Group

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia has not yet asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to dissolve its Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s office indicated on Saturday.

“The Republic of Armenia is considering the possibility of appealing to the OSCE regarding the dissolution of the Minsk Group,” it told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in a written statement.

The group had been set up in 1992 to deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It was for decades co-headed by the United States, Russia and France. Azerbaijan has listed its dissolution among its preconditions for signing a peace deal with Armenia.

Pashinyan expressed readiness to do so on Thursday two days after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made fresh threats of military action against Armenia. He earlier linked the group’s abolition to the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He said such a move should also require Baku to stop referring to much of modern-day Armenia’s territory as “Western Azerbaijan.”

“In a Facebook post on January 8, 2025, Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized that there is not and cannot be Western Azerbaijan on the territory of the Republic of Armenia and stressed the necessity for Azerbaijan to abandon this discourse that calls into question the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia and to establish peace,” his office said on Saturday, January 11.

“The Republic of Armenia unequivocally and unambiguously recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and is ready to reaffirm this by signing the peace treaty, as well as by implementing all other initiatives and steps mentioned in the above-mentioned post. It is important that Azerbaijan also unequivocally and unambiguously recognize the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia,” added its statement.