France, as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, is urging not to resort to use of force and to come back to negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement, the French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir told reporters Apr. 25 in Yerevan, the 'Armenia Today' website reported.
Desir said he had brought a message that the negotiations should be resumed.
Negotiations are needed to prevent the violence witnessed recently, according to him.
Desir also said France wants the control mechanisms to be applied over incidents, any military developments to cease, and the parties to be able to sit down at the negotiations table and maintain the ceasefire.
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.