Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 March / corr Trend K.Ramazanova / The International Crisis Group (ICG) calls on Azerbaijan and Armenia to take all necessary measures to remove incidents in the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces.
"We are very concerned about the 4 March armed clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontline. This was perhaps the largest cease-fire violation since the 1994 cease-fire agreement," Magdalena Frichova, Director of the ICG Caucasus project said in her e-mail interview on 11 March.
Beginning on 4 March, the ceasefire agreement was breached on the contact line of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the direction of the occupied territory of Azerbaijan. Injuries were reported.
Frichova said that the ICG deeply regret the resulting loss of human life, including the deaths of two Azeri civilians.
"We hope both sides will avoid a repetition of these incidents," she said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.