ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry commented on the closure of the OSCE Yerevan office.
"The closure of the OSCE office in Yerevan was the refusal of the Armenian leadership to submit proposals. OSCE proposals were based on legitimate concerns of Azerbaijan, because we demanded certain guarantees from the OSCE that the office of the organization in Yerevan will carry out its activities only on the territory of this country. That this activity does not concern the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said, APA reports. According to him, another requirement of Baku was that the activities of the OSCE Yerevan office under no circumstances affected the issue of the Karabakh conflict, as well as measures aimed at its settlement, political, military, economic aspects of the solution of the problem: "These issues were raised by Azerbaijan, and as a result, the Austrian Chairmanship made certain changes and submitted proposals that Armenia did not agree with. Austria and other OSCE countries, having taken our concern, decided that in this case the office cannot continue its activities. The office in Yerevan will be closed. The process of closure has already begun and should be completed within three months."
Earlier it became known that the OSCE Yerevan office would be closed in the near future. The reason for this was the veto imposed by Azerbaijan on the continuation of the further mission of the OSCE office in Yerevan. As you know, the OSCE, according to its charter, agrees decisions on a consensus basis, and, despite the fact that all member states supported the continuation of the mission of the Yerevan office, which is the only one in the region, the veto of Azerbaijan will lead to the closure of the organization's office in Armenia. To note, Austria's chairmanship in the OSCE also made efforts towards the continuation of the organization's mission in Yerevan, but this did not affect the decision of Baku.