Statement delivered by the Permanent Delegation of Armenia at the 1126th Special Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

31 December, 2016

Mr. Chairman,

In response to your statement let me highlight that in recent years Azerbaijan has been trying to consistently reduce the OSCE permanent presence in the South Caucasus. First, it downgraded and then simply closed the OSCE Office in Baku. After the closure of that office Azerbaijani side is trying to target remaining OSCE field missions in the region by disseminating slander and groundless accusations. It should be recalled that last year Azerbaijan attacked the long-standing agreed language on the PRCiO permanent presence on the ground in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

The current unprecedented attempt to use a technical decision on the extension of the mandate of the Yerevan Office for attacking the last full-fledged OSCE mission in the South Caucasus should not be tolerated by all OSCE actors including the Chairmanship, Secretariat and participating states. Any unprincipled position can be perceived by Azerbaijan as an encouragement for its further destructive stance in the OSCE. We regret that the OSCE is conceived by Azerbaijan as a battlefield to promote its conflict perceptions by hostage taking attitude at the expense of the true spirit of cooperation of the remaining 56 participating States.

Armenia approached this OSCE issue encompassing the integrity of the family of OSCE field missions in responsible and transparent manner in line with the OSCE commitments, practice and procedure. We believe that standing united and firm on the basis of preserving the mandates of all OSCE missions without exception is essential to this end. We cannot create such an impression that OSCE damaging steps and misuse of the principle of consensus by Azerbaijan should be further tolerated.

We request that this statement be attached to the journal of the day.

Thank you.

MFA RA
official website

Dual citizenship

Electronic visa

Visa applications