Russian expert: Yerevan attempts to revive OSCE Minsk Group "very dangerous"
Dmitriy Babich on Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  01 July 2022 - 11:44

The negotiations in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group were finally rejected by Baku and Moscow, but Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan still does not give up hope of returning the troika of foreign "peacemakers-mediators" to the negotiating table, trying to revive it. In any case, the other day Pashinyan, during an online press conference, described as strange Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remark that the OSCE Minsk Group "ceased its activities on the initiative of American and French participants".

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry had to correctly warn that if Yerevan really wants peace, then it "needs to show political will and take concrete steps towards peace, instead of wasting time on reviving a format whose effectiveness has always been low and whose members now openly admit its impossibility".

To find out the reasons explaining Yerevan's persistent attempts to revive the OSCE Minsk Group, Calibre.Az turned to Russian political scientist, columnist of the portal InoSMI Dmitriy Babich.

Babich considers strange not the remark by Lavrov, but the statement of Pashinyan himself, as "very strange".

- What the hell is the Minsk Group?! It seems that the head of the Armenian government is not aware of what is happening in the world, what is happening between Russia and other OSCE Minsk Group member countries, the United States and France. The main members of the organisation, that is, the United States and France, act against the Russian Federation as hostile countries. In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, they openly supply weapons to Kyiv in order to destroy as many Russian servicemen as possible. How can an international organisation, especially a peacekeeping one, work in such a situation?

The second point I would like to draw attention to is the peacekeeping summary of the United States, France and the European Union as a whole. It is obvious that France is acting in foreign policy within the EU. So, over the past 30 years, neither the US nor the EU as mediators has resolved a single conflict. On the contrary, the collective West has contributed to conflicts. Of the latter, we can recall Syria and Ukraine.

In Syria, as a result of the activities of the West, a terrorist organisation called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) appeared, which posed a danger to the whole world. And the conflict in Ukraine is practically sucked out of the finger. We lived in the Soviet Union and we know that there was no nationalism between Russians and Ukrainians. However, the US and the EU have done everything possible to aggravate the situation. In other words, the West's guilt in unleashing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is enormous. During the Second Karabakh War, the West could also take an active part in the peaceful settlement, but for some reason only Russia was active. Moreover, almost the entire French press was on the side of Armenia, and Macron, for political reasons, could not play the role of an objective mediator in this conflict…

And it is quite obvious that referring to the initially non-functioning body, non-functioning mechanism - the OSCE Minsk Group, Pashinyan pursues some bad goals.

A serious politician and a generally normal person would not turn to an inactive organisation. I think that after the defeat in the 44-day war, and Pashinyan lost the war, he is just trying to win back what was lost on the battlefield, in particular reputation, on the diplomatic field. To do this, he is trying to involve Western countries in the settlement process. It seems to the Armenian prime minister that the West can help him in this.

Undoubtedly, Western countries have a great history, but for the past 30 years, they have been unable to resolve conflicts. For a number of reasons, they turned out to be poor peacemakers and mediators in conflict resolution. The countries of the Old World have done nothing to settle the Karabakh conflict for the entire time of its existence, which is 30 years. In a word, Pashinyan's attempts to involve the West are very dangerous. It remains to be hoped that the collective West will not actively interfere in the Armenian-Azerbaijani problem. But if the US and the EU do intervene, they will pursue the goal of hurting Russia and reducing its prestige on the international platform. Furthermore, it will inevitably lead to the fact that they will act against Baku. Azerbaijan has liberated its territories and today calls for peace. But the West from time to time questions the fairness of the outcome of the 44-day war. With the help of "talking heads", he says that the statement of November 10, 2020, is unfair, etc. But when asked what exactly they are not satisfied with, they answer that Russia's influence has increased. And if Western countries get involved in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani issue, they will try to revise the results of the war in Armenia's interests," Babich said.

Caliber.Az