Azerbaijan, Baku, 14 January / Trend corr. E.Huseynli / The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs will take part in monitoring, which will be held on the contact line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani militaries on 16 January, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reports to Trend.
The next visit by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Yuri Merzlakov, Bernard Fassier and Matthew Bryza has started. Today, the co-chairs will meet with the Azerbaijani President and Foreign Minister.
Under the mandate of the private representative of the OSCE functioning chairman, monitoring is planned to be held on the Azerbaijani-Armenian frontline near the village of Yusifjanli of the Agdam region of Azerbaijan. Imre Palatinus and Antal Hertich, assistants to the chairman of the OSCE, will take part in the monitoring by representing Azerbaijan.
Andzey Kasprzyk, a private representative of the OSCE functioning chairman, as well as Jaslan Nurtazin, Piter Ki and Miroslav Vimetal will attend the monitoring from the Armenian side.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988, due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement which ended active hostilities. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding the peaceful negotiations.