OSCE and Conflict Resolution in the Post-Soviet Area: The Case of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of the several conflicts in the post-Soviet space in which Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is involved in mediation of peace negotiations, but failed to facilitate any kind of sustainable resolution of the conflict. The OSCE continued peace-making efforts from 1992 to date; it has deployed several institutions that are tasked dealing with conflict, including the OSCE Minsk Group. In the environment of impunity coupled with the inefficacy of OSCE, Armenia refuses to compromise for the sake of peace and repeatedly sabotages the negotiations process, rendering resolution of the conflict virtually impossible. In such a complex situation, the OSCE needs to be very committed and to have a significantly more effective and coherent peace building strategy. However, OSCE’s peace efforts and mediation strategy suffers significant setbacks; the major purpose of the Minsk Group troika’s efforts seems to have become ‘conflict management’ rather than genuine conflict resolution.

Authors: Azad Garibov
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