The Minsk Group was created on March 24 1992 within the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory. Representatives of the co-chairs of the Minsk group have for this purpose paid several visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia, and have repeatedly met with the Presidents and Foreign Ministers of both countries. But these visits and mediator missions proved no results. The Minsk group has proposed three plans for the resolution of the conflict:
-Comprehensive agreement on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (Package deal, June 1997);
-Agreement on the end of the Nagorno Karabakh armed conflict, (Step-by-step deal, October 1997)
-On the principles of multilateral resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh armed conflict (Common state solution, November 1998).
Of these resolutions proposed by the Minsk group, the first two were rejected by Armenia and the last one by Azerbaijan. When the situation is assessed by the Co-chairs of the Minsk Group, France, Russia and the US, it is clearly seen that, in compliance with their mediator mission, they do not resort to international law and justice to end Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory.
When the co-chairs of the Minsk group sense danger even from the farthest regions, they employ all possible methods of pressure, including military intervention, in the name of first strike. However, they are attempting to convince Azerbaijan that the Armenian troops in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the violation of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, international activism to recognize the fabricated "independence" of NKR, the airport they are planning on opening in Khankend and the smuggling of weapons and narcotics and terror camps within the occupied regions do not pose any threat to Azerbaijan.
The following result from taking a look the relations between the co-chairs and Armenia:
Russia has a military base in Azerbaijan. Russia calls Armenia, a member to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a strategic ally and controls the manufacturing industries that make up Armenia’s economy. There is a strong Armenian Diaspora in Russia and they are being represented at various levels of government. Almost all of Armenia’s natural gas and oil needs are supplied by Russia.
Russia is not as strong in any other post-soviet state as it is in Armenia. Armenia is Russia’s first point of guard in its southern borders. Armenia has always been in need of the political, economic and military support from Russia. Without any one of these pretences, Armenia’s economic and political existence can be endangered.
In the international community, there is a theory of mutual dependence between countries. According to this theory, if the balance between dependence is disturbed, one dictates and the other is being dictated. We must also think of Armenia-Russia relations within this framework. Armenia does not have the possibility or the space to maneuver in the field of economics, politics, and security for Russia. In order to retain its influence over Southern Caucasus, Russia is supporting Armenia.
Even though the US is a co-chair of the Minsk Group, it does not approach the issue within the framework of international law. It passes the 907th amendment to the Freedom Support Act, banning direct governmental assistance to Azerbaijan, allocates financial aid to the fabricated NKR regime, and though unofficial, overlooks visits of authorities of the fabricated regime. Representatives of the Armenian Diaspora in the US try to form policies positively geared towards Armenia and the false NKR regime. The US supports Armenia to stand before Russia. And US states are passing laws to recognize the made-up Armenian genocide.
In the past twenty years, after Israel, Armenia has received the most per capita financial aid from the United States. While the US demands that the region and other states cut off economic and political relations with Iran, Armenia and Iran authorities hold regular visits to each other’s countries, and advance economic, political, trade and energy relations. The US does not impose on Armenia any of the economic and political sanctions that it imposes on countries that support terrorism. It supports separatism and ethnic nationalism as in the case of the false NKR.
It exerts no pressure to close the Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant that seriously harms the region’s ecosystem. The US also uses Armenia as a pressure weapon against Turkey. While it was able to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, it allows for ASALA members to live in a country of terrorists.
France supports Armenia in the international community, and, like the US, uses it as a pressure weapon against Turkey; it passes laws to recognize the made-up Armenian genocide and to outlaw any denials, organizes Armenians in France against Azerbaijan and Turkey, does not refrain from freeing terrorist-criminals who conducted acts of terror against Turkish diplomats in the 1980s, and as former French President Sarkozy expressed, considers Armenia a "sister," and shows favoritism.
Co-chairs of the Minsk Group believes that in such an environment, Azerbaijan –which is incomparably more important in terms of partnership opportunities in the fields of energy, security and other fields than Armenia- does not see or understand these realities and therefore the countries overlook the just demands it sets forth.
But there is no need for the co-chairs to "once again discover America." All they need to do is pressure Armenia into complying with the resolutions set forth by documents of international law, United Nations (UN) regulations, an the UN Security Council, aimed at freeing Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.