Nikol Pashinyan has said Yerevan is also prepared to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group dedicated to mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that Yerevan is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and simultaneously dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group - now-defunct mediation format for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The statement follows the decades-long dispute between the two former Soviet republics over the Karabakh region. Azerbaijan regained control of the territory in 2023, prompting the departure of its remaining ethnic Armenian population and the dissolution of its separatist administration. Baku has since called for the formal disbandment of the Minsk Group, established under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as a condition for signing a peace agreement.

Speaking to the Armenian parliament on Tuesday, Pashinyan stated that Yerevan "understands Azerbaijan's agenda regarding the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. Indeed, if we are closing the chapter on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - and we are - then what is the purpose of a format that deals with its resolution?"

Pashinyan added that Armenia is prepared to formalize both steps together. "We propose to sign the peace agreement and simultaneously dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group, meaning the signing of both documents on the same day," he said.

Azerbaijani officials previously stated that any peace agreement must include the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and amendments to Armenia's constitution, which they claim contains territorial claims against Baku.

The Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France, and the United States, was established under the OSCE in the 1990s. It has been largely inactive since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the 2023 Azerbaijani military operation that restored Baku's control over the region.

In 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged that the OSCE Minsk Group had effectively ceased to function at the initiative of the US and France. The resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was therefore mainly carried out through direct contacts between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, he added.

Previously, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also told reporters that Yerevan and Baku have recognized each other's territorial integrity based on their borders at the time of the Soviet Union's collapse. He described the current version of the peace treaty as "a historic matter."

According to Mirzoyan, consultations on signing a treaty are expected to begin soon, although he did not give a date or location.

(RT.com)