Yerevan/Mediamax/. Spokesperson for Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan said that Azerbaijan opposes OSCE.

“Due to its extremely destructive stance, Azerbaijan finds itself in a total isolation. OSCE Chairmanship, participating States, Secretariat support activities of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, and it is solely Azerbaijan that abuses the OSCE principle of consensus, singlehandedly blocking the decision on the continuation of activities of the OSCE office in Yerevan thus opposing to the whole Organisation,” the official said, answering the question from News.am.

Mediamax reported this January how Azerbaijan tries to feed obviously false information to the international community about their reasons to hinder extension of the OSCE Yerevan Office’s mandate.

On May 4, Representative of the OSCE Austrian Chairmanship delivered a statement at the Permanent Council meeting, announcing that despite exerted efforts, it was impossible to reach an agreement on the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

“The Armenian Delegation to the OSCE made a statement reflecting on all steps undertaken by Armenia together with previous - German and current - Austrian Chairmanships aimed at ensuring the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. Armenian side recalled actions of Azerbaijan aimed at closing the Office which increasingly enhanced, although the OSCE Austrian and the German Chairmanships clearly refuted Azerbaijani false allegations targeting the Office,” Tigran Balayan said.

In the exclusive interview to Mediamax of this January, Austrian Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz said, “We recognise the important and valuable work of the Office in Yerevan and do not have plans or intentions to close it.”

“After closing the OSCE Office in Baku and blocking also the activities of the Office in Yerevan, Azerbaijan deprives the OSCE of fully-fledged presence in the South Caucasus, which will have a detrimental impact not only on the activities of the Organisation in our region but the OSCE as a whole and its structures,” said Armenian MFA Spokesperson.

Tigran Balayan said that as an active OSCE participating State, Armenia will continue to contribute to the realisation of the OSCE goals and consider new avenues of implementing OSCE projects in the country, as was proposed at the Permanent Council.

At the moment, Armenia is the only country in South Caucasus that has an OSCE office.

The OSCE Office in Baku, opened in summer of 2000, ceased its activity on January 1, 2014.

The mandate of Tbilisi OSCE Office, opened in 1992, expired on December 31, 2008.

Mediamax finds it noteworthy that the decision to open an OSCE Office in Yerevan was made at the Permanent Council meeting in July of 1999. The decision indicated that by mutual agreement of the OSCE and Armenia, the office’s term should be extended by 12 months every time it expires.

Since March of 2016, Russian Diplomat, Ambassador Argo Avakov holds the positions of the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.