Azerbaijan, OSCE chart new path forward Shedding burdens of the past

OSCE Chair-in-Office, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade of Malta Ian Borg has visited Baku. He was received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and then Borg met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. Following the meeting, Bayramov and Borg gave a joint press conference.

Negotiations on the peace process and post-conflict settlement were also held, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said. Referring to the peace process and post-conflict settlement with Armenia, Bayramov emphasized the importance of starting the delimitation process between Baku and Yerevan, as well as direct negotiations, "as they yield positive results".

Among other things, Bayramov also said that the OSCE is facing a number of challenges and the member countries of the organization need to follow its principles. At the same time, the minister added: "Azerbaijan has always followed the OSCE principles, especially in terms of adherence to the principle of territorial integrity." This phrase, apart from a dry statement of fact, also contained a hint about the organization's failure to comply with its own principles, in particular in the issue of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in the context of the former Karabakh conflict.

And if the country's chief diplomat said this indirectly, then the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who also received the chair-in-office, did not fail to express his dissatisfaction with the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group during the conflict.

The president noted that although the issue of eliminating the consequences of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan and occupation of lands was on the OSCE agenda, neither this organization nor the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair mechanism did anything to resolve the conflict, liberate Azerbaijani territories from occupation and return the IDPs. Moreover, according to the president, during these years the negotiation process conducted by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also served the continuation of occupation of Azerbaijani territories. President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that Azerbaijan, thanks to its will and strength, put an end to the occupation, ensuring territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with the norms and principles of international law and the UN Charter.

Stating that the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has already remained in history and does not exist, President Aliyev said that it is time to abolish the OSCE Minsk Group and all institutions related to it. The Azerbaijani side raised this issue and there is no reason why the Armenian side would not agree to this.

However, as we can see, the president's remarks on the OSCE were devoid of notes of displeasure directly to Mr. Borg. Indeed, the current leadership of the OSCE is certainly not responsible for the destructive position of his predecessors, but by virtue of the fact that he represents the organization, he must inevitably accept a portion of criticism.

By the way, for comparison, it is interesting to recall the president's reception of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on December 12, 2020, after the glorious victory in the Second Karabakh War. At that time, President Aliyev received the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Stephane Visconti of France, Andrew Schofer of the US, Ambassador of Russia to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk

At that meeting, President Aliyev was more emotional. Let us recall his words: "The conflict is resolved. Azerbaijan did it by military-political means. Many times I heard from you and from your leaders and from your high-ranking officials that there is no military solution to the conflict. I was saying there is, and the history shows that I was right. I think that those who were saying that there is no military solution they realized themselves that there was. They just wanted to keep everything as it is. And we showed that the status quo can be changed by force, by courage, by wisdom, by policy, by concentration of efforts, by solidarity of Azerbaijani people, by the will of the Azerbaijani government and the spirit of Azerbaijani people and bravery of Azerbaijani soldier. We showed that we were right.”

The best illustration that we are indeed right is that the Armenian-Azerbaijani agenda in our country's relations with the OSCE is waning and its place is firmly taken by global problems of humanity. Thus, Aliyev and Borg discussed the future of COP29, as well as the problem of small island states.

Azerbaijan is no longer perceived as a hotspot, which means it is no longer an object of governance. And everyone should reckon with this now.