OSCE chairman-in-office dispatches mission to Armenia on his own initiative

The OSCE has stated that the group sent to Armenia on October 21-27, dubbed the "OSCE Needs Assessment Mission," is unrelated to the organisation.

In response to the APA news agency's question addressed to the organisation, it was said that the decision to send this group to Armenia was made not by the relevant OSCE agencies or the OSCE secretariat, but by the initiative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

The OSCE Secretary noted that the Permanent Council, which is a decision-making body, did not take such a decision to send this group, the group does not have an OSCE mandate, moreover, no funds from the OSCE budget have been spent for it. It was brought to the attention that the expenses of the group were paid at the expense of extra-budgetary funds, individually by some OSCE participating countries.

As can be seen, Azerbaijan's position on this issue prompted the OSCE to reconsider. In addition, the OSCE removed the announcement of the group's dispatch from its official website.

Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan's work over the past two months has played a special role in achieving this result. As you know, on October 20, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted harshly to the information published on the official OSCE website in connection with the dispatch of this group.

The Foreign Ministry said that the issue of sending such a mission has never been discussed by any OSCE body that makes collective decisions on this issue. It was noted that a mission sent without any OSCE mandate, contrary to Armenia's statements, cannot be connected with the OSCE in any way.

The Foreign Ministry also stated that this step raises serious questions, given that over the past almost 30 years, efforts to stop military aggression against Azerbaijan and eliminate its grave consequences, and even efforts within the framework of OSCE missions not related to the former Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, have always been suppressed by the OSCE, with reference to the principle of consensus.

It should be noted that the OSCE Chairman-in-Office is Poland.