The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly criticized the group for the failure. The Azerbaijani public too suspects that the co-chairs of the group are taking a pro-Armenian stance given the large number of Armenians living in Russia, France and the United States. It is no surprise that we’re hearing calls in Azerbaijan to end the talks being mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group and use military force to restore the country’s territorial integrity. There are also proposals to replace the Minsk Group with a format representing more "objective” international mediators.

 

War is an extremely risky measure of last resort. To prepare for it, you need to work really hard and speak less. As for the idea of rejecting the OSCE Minsk Group format, one needs to bear in mind that such a move could cost Azerbaijan dearly given the international order. The ill-wishers of our country would try to present this as a "non-constructive” move by Azerbaijan torpedoing the peace process.

 

The co-chairs reject accusations of failure by pointing out that the sides to the conflict lack the will to agree on a settlement. When asked to take a principled position on the conflict, they say this would make their mediation mission even more difficult. Today, it is in no-one’s interest to have the OSCE Minsk Group replaced as a mediator.

 

The other major powers, China for instance, are keeping distance from protracted conflicts that have nothing to do with their own national interests. The United Kingdom is acting in tandem with the USA on international affairs. In February 1992, I, as an advisor at the presidential administration, and Yashar Aliyev, the former Azerbaijani ambassador to the USA, represented our country at a meeting of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Prague. That was where the composition of the Minsk Group took shape as a body to help prepare for the Minsk Conference on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

The conference was cancelled after the resumption of hostilities and occupation of Azerbaijani territories. The Minsk Group started to mediate peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan doesn’t have any complaints about the Minsk Group as a body but the co-chairs representing Russia, France and the United States at the group. Therefore, there are proposals to make sure that the group has co-chairs on a rotating basis or to increase the number of the co-chairs to five, adding Turkey in. Such an expanded format, however, could lead to disputes among the co-chairs and we’ll have to appoint a moderator to handle their disputes.

 

At a closer look, we can see that there is no country in the Minsk Group to rotate the co-chairs with. The Minsk Group was first chaired by Italy, and then by Sweden and a duo representing Finland and Russia. Germany’s candidacy was rejected by Armenia, and Berlin didn’t insist on chairmanship. In the past 15 years the co-chairmanship of the trio of Russia, France and the United States has become firm.

 

Turkey’s role as a co-chair would be unacceptable for Armenia. A precondition for Turkey becoming a co-chair would be the restoration of diplomatic ties between Turkey and Armenia and reopening of their common border. As for the influential international organizations such as the UN, the European Union, the Council of Europe, NATO and others, these organizations mostly call for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and express support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

 

The UN has been trying for decades to mediate a peaceful resolution to the disputes in Cyprus, Palestine and other places without any success. NATO hasn’t achieved a positive result in Afghanistan. The European Union, along with the US, Ukraine and Russia, has not been able to make progress to resolve the conflict in Moldova’s Dniester region. Efforts to get the conflicting sides on Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Crimea sit on a negotiating table and start talks have failed.

 

Summing up, I think getting involved in discussions on the composition of the Minsk Group’s co-chairs would be counterproductive. This would paralyze the activities of the group, which is lacking initiatives anyway. This would also divert attention to unimportant procedural issues. Even if you can succeed in barring Russia, the US and France from the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, these powers cannot be excluded from the Karabakh settlement process.

 

NOTE: Rasim Musabayov is a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament. This commentary was originally posted on Musabayov's Facebook page.