ArmInfo.Azerbaijan reflects on the motives of blocking the decision on extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.
Trend reports that at the 31 Dec 2016 meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council the Azerbaijani Delegation informed the Organization that it does not support the draft decision on extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, because its activity in the military and political dimension was a source of deep concerns for Baku. "We stressed that the OSCE support provided to Armenia via its field mission should by no means be used in Nagorno-Karabakh or serve "to extend the occupation of territories by Armenia". We also emphasized that our support to that mission will depend on prevention of unlawful use of the support by the host country against the legal interests of Azerbaijan's security," the statement says. Baku says that it is also seriously concerned over the fact that over the past few years the OSCE Office in Yerevan has been involved in demining activities.
Azerbaijan states that these activities are directly related to the protracted Karabakh conflict. Within the framework of these activities, the OSCE expands the support to the Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise (CHDE), it says. Azerbaijan expressed its stand to the OSCE Chairmanship, noting that the deminers should introduce changes in the Offices' activities, which will become an important step towards ensuring collective support to the OSCE Office in Yerevan by all Participating States. "All missions of the OSCE should act in accordance with the principles of the OSCE and should not harm the legal interests of the other Participating States. However, the intensive consultations with the incumbent German and Austrian chairmanships have given no results that could have removed the concerns of Azerbaijan," the statement says, noting that to overcome the current situation, Azerbaijan agreed to the both chairmanships' proposal that they would instruct the OSCE Office in Yerevan to stop its demining-related activities. "The statement also stresses the need "for transparency and accountability, which would prevent reoccurrence of such an undesirable situation in the future. Unfortunately, following long discussions it became clear that Armenia's stand makes a solution impossible. The Azeri delegation has to refuse to support the draft decision on extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan," says the statement of the Azeri representation to the OSCE.
To note, the operation of the OSCE Office in Yerevan hangs in the air due to the lack of consensus on extension of its mandate. The mandate for operation of the OSCE Offices is extended annually on the basis of the OSCE Participating States' consensus. The press service of the OSCE Office in Yerevan told ArmInfo that the OSCE Chairmanship continues to lead negotiations to reach consensus on extension of mandates of a number of OSCE field operations. "Participating States have not yet reached consensus on extension of mandates of a number of OSCE field operations. The Chairmanship continues to lead negotiations on this with the aim of early agreement. Pending agreement on mandate extension by the participating States, the field operations remain open and will continue administrative, non- mandate-related work. Negotiations are ongoing and we cannot speculate about them," the source says.
Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tigran Balayan says that Armenia backs the OSCE Office in Yerevan and consistently provides assistance within the frames of OSCE corresponding decisions. He notes that since the OSCE Office in Baku was closed, the OSCE Office in Yerevan has been the only full representation of the Organization in the South Caucasus. Balayan states that the role of the OSCE Office in Armenia is valued by OSCE Chairmanship, OSCE Secretariat and other institutions of the Organization, as well as by the absolute majority of the Participating States, except for one.