Artsakh’s exiled authorities have urged member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to block Armenia and Azerbaijan’s joint request to disband the Minsk Group, the body established in 1992 to mediate the conflict between the two countries.
In their appeal, Artsakh’s leaders warned that dissolving the group would amount to legitimizing what they described as the “ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan in Artsakh” during the September 2023 offensive. That military campaign gave Baku full control of the region and forced the entire Armenian population—over 120,000 people—to flee to Armenia.
For more than three decades, the Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France, served as the only internationally mandated framework for peace talks. While the group has been inactive since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Azerbaijan has repeatedly pressed for its formal termination.
Armenia had previously insisted that any such move should come only after the signing of a comprehensive peace treaty with Azerbaijan. However, during U.S.-hosted negotiations on August 8 with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan abandoned that position. The talks, led by President Donald Trump, concluded with the initialing—but not signing—of a draft treaty.
Following the meeting, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers submitted a joint request to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group. France welcomed the proposal, while Russia has not yet responded.
Artsakh’s political factions reacted with alarm, addressing a formal letter to OSCE member states.
“For decades, the Minsk Group has been the only internationally recognized mechanism for resolving the Artsakh conflict,” wrote Ashot Danielyan, the Yerevan-based speaker of Artsakh’s National Assembly. “Eliminating this framework without consulting the representatives of the people it was created to serve is to silence our voice and erase our role in the process.”
The statement called on OSCE members to use all available tools, including veto powers, to block the dissolution of the group until concrete guarantees are in place to secure the safe return of displaced Artsakh Armenians.
“The conflict is not resolved when an entire population remains uprooted and stripped of its rights,” the appeal continued. “Our displacement was not voluntary—it was the product of blockade, starvation, and military assault, none of which have been meaningfully addressed by the international community.”
Gegham Stepanyan, Artsakh’s human rights ombudsman, went further, telling RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that if the international community dismantles the Minsk Group, “we will continue to search for other methods and means to pursue our struggle.”
Prime Minister Pashinyan, meanwhile, has made clear that his government considers the Artsakh question closed. Rejecting calls to lobby for the right of return, he declared on Monday that refugees from Artsakh should no longer hope to return to their homeland but instead “settle down in Armenia” as “full-fledged citizens.”
