Swiss MP Stefan Müller-Altermatt speaks at an event with leaders from Nagorno Karabakh at the parliament house on April 30. csi
When Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told Parliament on June 15 that convening a peace forum for the forcefully displaced Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh was “not possible” due to Switzerland’s inability to speak to non-state actors, National Councillor Stefan Müller-Altermatt was not satisfied.
Müller-Altermatt, a member of the Swiss parliament’s lower house, has now filed a formal interpellation challenging the Federal Council’s reasoning and demanding it honor the mandate the Swiss legislature gave it more than one year ago.
That mandate, Motion 24.4259, was adopted by both chambers of the Swiss Parliament with cross-party backing, completing its passage in March 2025.
It instructs the Federal Council to organize an internationally supervised forum where Azerbaijan and representatives of the Armenian people of Nagorno Karabakh could negotiate the safe, collective return of the roughly 150,000 people forcibly expelled from their historic homeland between 2020 and 2023. Fifteen months on, no forum has been convened.
Legislators demand answers
On several occasions since the motion was passed, the Federal Council has argued that it cannot fulfill this mandate, because the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan are not interested in the peace forum – although the motion says nothing about the government of Armenia, but rather the representatives of the displaced Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.
In the Swiss parliament’s question time on June 15, National Councillor Erich Vontobel challenged Cassis on his deference to Yerevan’s recalcitrance toward the Swiss Peace Initiative. Vontobel and Müller-Altermatt are co-presidents of a committee of 21 parliamentarians promoting the Swiss Peace Initiative.
“What measures has the Federal Council taken to facilitate the talks with the representatives of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh as required by the motion?” Vontobel asked.
Cassis justified the inaction arguing that Switzerland cannot speak with Nagorno Karabakh’s representatives because it never recognized Nagorno Karabakh as a state.
The reaction in Azerbaijan, whose SOCAR state petroleum company is expanding in Switzerland, was triumphant.
Azerbaijan’s Trend News Agency wrote on June 15 that Cassis had “put Armenian revanchist Erich Vontobel in his place.”
In the Swiss legislature, however, parliamentarians were concerned.
Müller-Altermatt found Cassis’ reasoning to be in contradiction with longstanding Swiss foreign policy.
On Monday he submitted an interpellation that put four pointed questions to the government.
The parliamentarian asked whether the government acknowledges that Nagorno Karabakh, as a de facto state from 1991 to 2023, possessed at least partial standing under international law.
He followed up by asking why Switzerland, whose tradition of good offices has long included negotiating with non-state actors, now refuses to engage Nagorno Karabakh’s representation.
Müller-Altermatt further demanded to know what Switzerland is doing to uphold international law in a case where a population has been violently driven from its homeland, its leaders imprisoned, and its ancient cultural heritage deliberately destroyed.
And he asked how the Federal Council intends to fulfill its mandate, approved with broad support from the legislature, to seek dialogue with the representatives of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.
Swiss tradition of peacemaking
The contradiction Müller-Altermatt highlights is not abstract. Switzerland mediated with FARC rebels in Colombia and with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement during that country’s civil war.
In June 2025 Cassis himself met the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister despite Swiss lawmakers voting two months earlier against recognition of Palestine as a state.
“A just and sustainable peace in the South Caucasus is only possible if the voice of the people of Nagorno Karabakh is heard and their rights are taken into account,” commented Joel Veldkamp, the director of public advocacy for Christian Solidarity International. “In March 2025, the Swiss Parliament expressed its support for this approach by a large majority, by adopting a motion for a peace forum for Nagorno Karabakh which would give the people of Nagorno Karabakh a seat at the table.”
“If the Swiss government is willing to exercise some independence from the line set by Washington and Brussels, it can still make a decisive difference for a lasting peace in this crucial region – by fulfilling this mandate,” Veldkamp concluded.
