The OSCE Office in Yerevan (Photo: OSCE Office in Yerevan)
Azerbaijan ousted the OSCE from Baku in 2015
YEREVAN–The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose Minsk Group is tasked with mediating a peace in the Karabakh conflict, closed its offices in Yerevan on Thursday, per a decision in May, which came under pressure from Baku.
On the same day, Azerbaijani forces opened fire at an OSCE monitoring mission in the Chinari village of the Tavush Province.
In an announcement issued in May, the OSCE leadership expressed regret over the decision to close the Yerevan office, with a representative of Austria, the holder of the OSCE chairmanship, saying at the time that the Azerbaijani government’s adamant demands were at the heart of the decision.
Last year, Baku vetoed the extension of the OSCE’s office in Yerevan, which opened in 2000, by objecting to a humanitarian demining program that the Yerevan office was implementing.
In January, the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE headquarters in Yerevan stated that the Yerevan office “can strengthen the capacity and skills of relevant Armenian structures”
