US State Department puts end to fate of OSCE Minsk Group

US Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Andrew Schofer arrived in the South Caucasus region this week and visited Armenia. The Armenian media are actively representing him as the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, while the US State Department Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs on Twitter clearly outlined his position as a senior adviser for the Caucasus negotiations, thereby putting an end to the fate of the Minsk Group.

Discussing post-conflict issues with representatives of Western countries, Armenia refuses to recognize the realities that established after the Second Karabakh War. It should be admitted that before Andrew Schofer, Armenia warmly welcomed French diplomat Brice Roquefeuil, who also visited Yerevan not as a mediator of the OSCE Minsk Group, but as a representative of the French Foreign Ministry on Eastern Partnership issues.

Such visits have become more frequent after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explicitly stated that “the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group from the US and France refused to communicate with Russia in this format,” which indicates that the OSCE Minsk Group no longer exists. Realizing this, Moscow appointed Igor Khovaev as a special representative of the Russian foreign minister to promote the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This once again shows that the format of the OSCE Minsk Group has long outlived its usefulness and its existence was more formal than practical.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly spoken about the inefficiency of this format. “The Minsk Group was obliged to resolve the conflict by mandate from OSCE since 1992. So, they were functioning for 28 years until last November, when we, in 44 days, liberated the territories. My opinion about the Minsk Group activity does not differ from the opinion of the Azerbaijani people. It's a failure,” he told the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on December 15 during a working visit to Brussels.

Many foreign media also repeatedly declared the incapacity of this organization. Back in 2021, the well-known US political publication Foreign Policy published an article in which it exposed all the “activities” of this organization. “For 30 years, the Minsk Group failed to produce results; the recent victory by Azerbaijani military forces - ending Armenia’s occupation - leaves it with nothing left to do. It is now bankrupt and dead,” the article noted.

Many also criticize this organization for the one-sided position of France. President Emmanuel Macron irrevocably discredited France as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, and sided with Armenia in public statements, thereby violating diplomatic neutrality.

Former US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Richard Hoagland published an article “Does the Minsk Group still have a role?” in which he recalled the activities of the co-chairs at that time. “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,” admits Hoagland.

If such statements are made by representatives of this structure, it is safe to conclude that all attempts to revive it are doomed to failure. No matter how Armenia would like to involve the already non-existent OSCE Minsk Group in the negotiation process, it must come to terms with the realities and focus on the post-conflict stage of normalizing relations.