Despite the clear violation of the ceasefire by Armenia during the monitoring on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the OSCE Minsk Group has not officially announced the fault of the Armenian side, said the statement of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Oct.31.
On October 27, 2015, upon initial agreement the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs passed from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan through the line of contact between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan to the territories controlled by Azerbaijan army, said the statement.
“At the very moment a ceasefire monitoring exercise was conducted by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and his field officers on the road between Tartar and Aghdara (Tartar district of Azerbaijan),” the statement said.
“Despite prior agreement to undertake measures to ensure safety of the OSCE personnel, repeated gunfire was shot from the occupied territories controlled by Armenia’s armed forces in the direction of the positions of the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” according to the statement. “This incident forced the OSCE monitoring team to seek protection of the Azerbaijani armed forces.”
The OSCE team immediately contacted the opposite side to have the fire halted and to renew guarantees to hold fire, according to the representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, who were on the ground at a time of the incident.
The Republic of Azerbaijan shares the assessment of the co-chairs that this incident represents a deliberate attempt to undermine efforts towards a settlement, the statement said. Azerbaijan has repeatedly brought to the attention of the international community that over the past years and, specifically, since January 2015, cease-fire violations and armed provocations of the Armenian side have become more frequent and violent, causing, inter alia, deaths and injuries among Azerbaijani civilians, including women and children, according to the statement.
“Consistent and deliberate provocations of the Armenian side pursue the obvious goal to create explosive situation on the ground, undermine the efforts for the political resolution of the conflict and consolidate the status-quo of occupation,” said the statement of the ministry.
“The Republic of Azerbaijan once again demands from the Armenian side to put an end to its provocations, engage constructively in the conflict settlement process, comply with its international obligations and to withdraw its armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan.”
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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