Minsk Group Co-Chairs Tell European Parliament Not to Interfere with NKR Negotiations

PACE Winter Session 2015 begins in Strasbourg

On January 22, the OSCE Minsk Group issued a press release calling on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to refrain from moving forward with its two draft resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh, which are scheduled to be considered during the PACE Winter Session from January 25-29.

The two draft resolutions concern the topics of “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” and “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water.”

In their press release, MG co-chairs Igor Popov of Russia, James Warlick of the US, and Pierre Andrieu of France reiterate that their group “remains the only accepted format for negotiations” on the conflict and urged that “steps not be taken which could undermine [their] mandate” or “complicate ongoing negotiations.”

21 Armenian NGOS also released a statement calling on PACE delegates to vote against the resolutions. The NGOs point out that PACE has no experience or stated mission in conflict mediation or settlement, stating that “numerous violations of the mission, goals, declared principles and procedures of the Council of Europe, particularly of the PACE, have occurred” throughout the preparation process of the resolutions.

The resolutions were written without any representation from the authorities of NKR or its civil society, without the MG co-chairs and without taking the MG approach into account. Furthermore, neither of the authors of the resolutions visited NKR while preparing them. The exclusion of the people of NKR in this matter that concerns their fate has been called a deprivation of their right to freedom of speech and expression of will.

According to the NGO statement, this demonstrates a non-constructive, “discriminatory attitude” and proves that the real purpose “has nothing to do with the process of conflicts’ settlements.”

The statement also suggests that adopting such resolutions would only encourage Azerbaijan’s hardening stance that has been seen in its recent escalation of tension with use of heavy weaponry as well as its “destructive” behavior in the negotiations.

The NKR National Assembly factions have also released a joint statement expressing similar sentiments and calling on PACE to refrain from adopting the resolutions. They argue that doing so would “jeopardize the stability and peace in the region” and “allow Baku authorities to continually disregard the proposals made by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to reduce tension and can also be interpreted by it as carte blanche to resolve the conflict through use of force.”

The Minsk Group, which has been criticized for its inefficiency, was created in 1992. It most recently facilitated a meeting between Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in December 2015.