Azerbaijani president rules out need for Minsk Group after Karabakh settlement

President Ilham Aliyev has said that there is no need for the Minsk Group’s activity, after Azerbaijan resolved the Karabakh conflict, underlining that “the best way to say goodbye to the Minks Group”.

“Minsk Group was created in 1992, the mandate was to help to resolve the conflict, but in fact, its activity led to zero results. Can you imagine, for 28 years, a group which has a mandate from OSCE, didn’t produce any result,” Aliyev said while addressing the opening ceremony of the IX Global Forum on “Challenges to the Global World Order" on June 16, according to Caliber.Az.

The president said that there is no need for Minsk Group’s activity, after Azerbaijan resolved the Karabakh conflict, adding that “the best way to say goodbye to Minks Group, not ‘thank you’ and ‘good bye’, but only ‘goodbye’. Because 30 years is enough. It is time for retirement”

“Any kind of speculations in Armenia or in any other country about Minsk Group will only lead to irritation in Azerbaijan. We resolved the conflict, the so-called Madrid Principles which were elaborated by the Minsk Group have been resolved, and now we need to think about how to normalize relations with Armenia, and sign a peace agreement. I think, if both sides work in a good phase, we can sign this peace agreement within one year,” the president added.