Azerbaijan reflects on motives of blocking the decision on extension  of mandate of OSCE Office in Yerevan 

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.