Azerbaijani president urges official dissolution of OSCE Minsk Group

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev urged on Tuesday the formal dissolution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, saying the issue it was established to address has been resolved.

During a meeting with OSCE chairman Jan Borg in Baku, Aliyev advocated for the elimination of other mechanisms, which he referred to as "vestiges of the past," notably the High-level Planning Committee and the Institute of the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office, which the Azerbaijani leader characterized as "absolutely inactive."

He stressed that the OSCE budget can be used for more important projects.

The Azerbaijani leader pointed out that the Karabakh conflict has already been settled, with Azerbaijan "having secured its sovereignty and territorial integrity." Currently, Baku and Yerevan are engaged in a "bilateral normalization process," he said.

Established in 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by France, Russia, and the US, aimed to facilitate the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

Since 1991, tensions have persisted between Baku and Yerevan when Armenian forces seized Karabakh and seven surrounding regions, recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan.

In a 44-day conflict in late 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed most of the territory, and last September attained full sovereignty over Karabakh through an "anti-terrorist operation," leading to the surrender of separatist forces in the region.