From 1992 to 2022, the OSCE Minsk Group, established under the guise of resolving the former Garabagh conflict, became a textbook example of three decades of inactivity. To speak of the “importance” of this body is to credit an invisible virtue that never truly existed, neither in terms of national interests nor historical justice.

After the Bishkek Protocol of May 1994, signed at the end of the First Garabagh War, the Minsk Group’s first so-called success was to help secure a ceasefire, but only with Russia’s mediation. This appeared significant on the surface, yet a closer look at the battlefield dynamics reveals otherwise. By early 1994, Azerbaijan’s military operation towards Horadiz was already turning the tide. Signals were even being sent to Yerevan, and thence to the Kremlin, that withdrawal from the occupied territories might be unavoidable. Alarmed, Russia intervened immediately, ensuring that by May the OSCE Minsk Group was pressing for a ceasefire. In other words, it froze the conflict precisely at the moment when Azerbaijan was poised to reclaim its lands.

In 1997, the United States, and most importantly, Russia and France were appointed as the group’s permanent co-chairs, a composition that remained unchanged until its collapse. Considering France’s openly partisan support........

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