Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 8
Trend:
The OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairs on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement will return from the region to make a report to Berlin and then to the OSCE in a few weeks, RIA Novosti reported Apr. 8 citing Lamberto Zannier, the OSCE secretary general.
"They [the co-chairs] are in the [Nagorno-Karabakh] region now and will stay there as long as necessary to define the next steps and review the actions to be done," he said.
"The co-chairs must report about everything to the OSCE chairman-in-office [Andrzej Kasprzyk]," added Zannier. "So, I think they will go to Berlin. Then they will decide themselves when to arrive in Vienna."
Zannier also said the co-chairs' mission has no time limits.
"The co-chairs will have to come for a report," he said. "I think this issue will take several weeks."
On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.
Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.