Minsk Group dissolved as “diplomacy triumphs” following ethnic cleansing 

By Siranush Adamyan

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has formally closed its long-running Minsk process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, following a joint request from Armenia and Azerbaijan. In a decision adopted on September 1 by consensus of all 57 participating states, the OSCE Ministerial Council endorsed the appeal, hailing it as a step towards lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

“I would like to once again extend my warmest congratulations to Armenia and Azerbaijan on their historic agreements towards peace and normalization of relations and their resolute decision to start their prompt implementation,” said Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign minister and current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. Secretary-General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu, a Turkish national, called the decision “a historic development that underlines what diplomacy can achieve, even after decades of conflict and mistrust.” His statement, however, stopped short of acknowledging that the Minsk Group ultimately failed to bring a just peace to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and that the region’s entire Armenian population was ethnically cleansed in September 2023 following Azerbaijan’s military offensive.

The decision comes less than a month after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a U.S.-brokered joint declaration at the White House on August 8, witnessed by President Donald Trump. Alongside the declaration, the two leaders also initialed a bilateral peace agreement. The documents pledged mutual recognition of territorial integrity, border delimitation, the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the opening of trade and transport links, including a U.S.-backed transit route through Armenia to Nakhichevan. The declaration, titled the “Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations,” was presented as a framework for full normalization after more than three decades of conflict.

Armenia’s consent to the dissolution of the Minsk Group came under heavy pressure from Azerbaijan, which has sought to cement its military victory and erase all institutional references to Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku has long argued that the Minsk framework was obsolete, while many Armenians view its termination as the formal abandonment of international mechanisms that once recognized Karabakh as a disputed issue.

The Minsk Group was created in March 1992, at the height of the first Karabakh war, with a mandate to encourage a negotiated settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It was later co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France, though the 1994 armistice that froze the conflict for more than two decades was brokered by Russia alone. In subsequent years the group’s influence declined, as new wars and shifting geopolitics eroded its role in shaping outcomes.

The OSCE said only administrative functions, such as the handover of assets and equipment, will continue until the Minsk process is fully wound down by December 1. Valtonen and Sinirlioğlu reaffirmed the organization’s “unwavering commitment” to supporting initiatives that secure sustainable peace and stability in Armenia, Azerbaijan and the wider region.