Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: OSCE monitoring on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops was held belatedly, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry told Trend on Thursday.
On November 7, prior to launching the OSCE monitoring, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk, and field assistants Hristo Hristov, Evgeny Sharov, who were due to hold a monitoring session on the opposite side, did not appear in position.
The monitoring was conducted under the mandate of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops located near the village of Bala Jafarli in Azerbaijan's Gakh region.
According to the report, the monitoring passed without incident after both sides were warned.
The monitoring was held on the Azerbaijani side by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative's field assistants Jiri Aberle and William Pryor.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven 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 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.