Azerbaijan, Gazakh, November 29 / Trend, A. Salmanov /
The OSCE Minsk Group's French cochairman clarified the situation regarding the situation on the contact line of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
"This time we crossed the contact line of the troops in not Karabakh but Gazakh," Bernard Fassier reported. "Luckily, tension here is lesser than in Karabakh," he added.
On Tuesday, after the monitoring was over, the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen met head of the executive power of Gazakh region Ayaz Askarov.
Later on, the cochairmen flew to Baku on a helicopter.
On Tuesday, the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen held monitoring on the contact line of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
Monitoring held on the road between the Jafarli village in the Azerbaijani Gazakh region and Armenian Kayan village on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces on Nov.29 proceeded without incident and OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs moved to the Azerbaijani side, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend on Tuesday. The monitoring was held under a mandate of the OSCE chairman.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.