The Artsakh authorities are against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Samvel Shahramanyan stated this at a briefing with reporters Friday in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

“It [i.e. the OSCE Minsk Group] is the only international platform that was created specifically to resolve the [Karabakh] conflict. These decisions to close the ‘Artsakh page’, to shut the Minsk Group, are announced by the authorities of Armenia. And I expect also the reaction of the citizens of Armenia,” added Shahramanyan.

The idea of dissolving the OSCE Minsk Group was first voiced by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev as one of the conditions for normalizing relations with Armenia. Initially, Yerevan did not respond in principle, but then Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan himself clung to this idea, insisting on the possibility of dissolution. And during a panel discussion with his Azerbaijani and Georgian counterparts within the framework of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey on April 12, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced that Armenia was ready to sign a decision to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group—and along with the peace agreement with Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Minsk Group was formed to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The decision to form the group was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the OSCE participating states on March 24, 1992. The OSCE Minsk Group includes Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. And in 1997, the OSCE Minsk Group tri-chairmanship—comprising Russia, France, and the US—was established. In recent years, however, its activities have been de facto frozen, but de jure—not.