Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
A monitoring held March 4 on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops near the Tapqaraqoyunlu village of Azerbaijan's Qoranboy district under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said March 4.
On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Hristo Hristov and representative of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group Colonel Tuncay Sevim.
On the Armenian side, the monitoring was conducted by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Yevgeny Sharov, Peter Svedberg and OSCE High-Level Planning Group representative, Colonel Markus Widmer.
The Armenian armed forces twice violated the ceasefire by exposing threats to the life of the international observers during the monitoring conducted by the OSCE on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in January and February.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by CN