In recent days, British Deputy Ambassador Deidre Brown stated: "The United Kingdom reiterates its unconditional and full support for the efforts of France, Russia, and the United States in their capacity as Co-Chairs and the Minsk Group. We encourage Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue engagement with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to seek a permanent end to tensions in the region and to resolve all outstanding matters related to the conflict."
However, it is critical to recall that such statements are utterly misguided and there are better ways for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make peace than via the OSCE Minsk Group.
For 30 years, the OSCE Minsk Group, headed by Russia, France, and the United States, failed to find a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which resulted in Armenia refusing to vacate territories that rightfully belonged to Azerbaijan under international law, as demanded by four UN Security Council Resolutions.
For the Azerbaijani people, this was a great travesty of justice, which led to one million people remaining IDPs, living in squalid refugee camps.
To add insult to injury, OSCE Minsk Group heads such France did everything in their power to demonstrate that they were biased in favor of the Armenians and did not want to stand up for Azerbaijani human rights, as the French Parliament's recognition of Artsakh so well demonstrates, which completely undid whatever semblance that France could possibly have as being an impartial mediator. Such actions did everything to undermine the success of the OSCE Minsk Group mandate.
As an article that was published in the prestigious Foreign Policy Magazine highlighted, US Ambassador Richard E. Hoagland, who represented the United States as one of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group in 2017, noted that the OSCE Minsk Group was much ado about nothing: "We stayed in five-star hotels where we were usually assigned suites on the executive floor that gave us access to a private dining room and full bar at no additional expense. We always sought out the best restaurants in the cities where we found ourselves. We lived well while we showed the OSCE flag and reminded Baku and Yerevan that the Minsk Group exists. But to be blunt, very, very little ever got accomplished."
The Azerbaijani people suffered gravely from this reality. As a result, when the Armenians decided to attack Azerbaijani forces, Azerbaijan launched the Second Karabakh War in order to reclaim the lands that are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani military would not have had to do this had the OSCE Minsk Group done their jobs, rather than just do nothing to promote peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, instead preferring to go out and party at other people's expenses.
Considering this history, it would be preferable for a peace agreement to be directly negotiated between Azerbaijan and Armenia with a new mediator, rather than done via the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group, which has proven to be completely incompetent over the years. Right now, so much is at stake.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has finally expressed a readiness to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the level of foreign ministers to discuss a solution for the Karabakh conflict and to perhaps hand over the remaining landmine maps. This opportunity should not be lost by placing incompetent mediators who have proven time and again to be complete and utter failures in charge of the peace negotiations.
Instead, a country with no biases should be placed in charge of negotiating a peace agreement between the two countries, as this is the only way that the outcome can be conducive to establishing peace between both peoples. This is the only chance of ending the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, once and for all. Thus, for all of those who care about peace and security in the Caucuses, it is pivotal that we should disband the OSCE Minsk Group at the soonest possible date.
