Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 27
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
The US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick has called the violation of ceasefire by Armenians during the monitoring unacceptable.
The monitoring was held on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces in the Terter district of Azerbaijan.
"During our Line of Contact crossing, repeated gunfire forced OSCE monitors to take cover," Warlick tweeted. "This is unacceptable."
The monitoring was held under the mandate of personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office in the Terter district of Azerbaijan Oct. 27.
Despite the agreement on the ceasefire, the Armenian armed forces opened fire by using automatic weapons during the monitoring, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said.
After the immediate interference of co-chairmen, the fire was stopped, the statement said.
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 the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.