Armenian forces continue to aggravate tension on frontline

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Although the next OSCE monitoring mission reported negative to incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontline on August 14, reports about armistice breaches are daily occurrences in local media.

The real situation on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops remains tense despite a ceasefire agreement that the sides signed in 1994.

The Armenian army violates the ceasefire agreement from almost all directions, consistently firing on Azerbaijani positions. The situation on the contact line of troops has recently been aggravated as the Armenian armed forces have intensified ceasefire breaches.

Armenia occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven surrounding regions and keeps over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory under its control.

Right after monitoring of the contact line, the Armenian armed forces increased ceasefire violations on August 16 using the 60 mm and 82 mm caliber rocket-propelled grenades and large-caliber machine guns.

The Armenian military violated the ceasefire 143 times on various points along the contact line on the next day of the international monitoring.

On August 20, the truce violations reached its peak in its most recent wave as the Armenian armed forces shattered the ceasefire 167 times at different locations.

These facts show that the OSCE monitoring mission lacks of some facts while assessing the situation on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops.

Firstly, monitoring is usually held only in one location along the contact line. In addition, both sides are informed about the monitoring beforehand. Therefore, Armenian forces abstain from violating the ceasefire regime during this short period.

However, they even sometimes ignore the monitoring, firing at OSCE representatives. Armenian troops fired at OSCE representatives as well as Azerbaijani positions during a monitoring mission on the contact line early this year.

This is not the only case that Armenian troops grossly violated the ceasefire regime with Azerbaijan during OSCE’s monitoring operation.

In late October 2014, despite being informed earlier about the OSCE monitoring operation, Armenian troops continued their provocative moves on the contact line.

Another point in the ineffectiveness of the monitoring is the fact that it doesn’t reveal who is guilty of violation of the ceasefire. These regular monitoring missions don’t yield any results as the Armenian forces continue to resort to sabotage and provocation along the contact line as they have done for nearly 25 years.

Despite these facts, international organizations don’t put pressure on Armenia to put an end to the occupant country’s illegal acts. Armenia remains unpunished for the crimes that it committed against the Azerbaijani people.

Using the situation of impunity, Armenia continues provocations against Azerbaijan and keeps the residents of the border and frontline settlements under the constant fear.

Holding a non-constructive position in the peace negotiation to settle the long-standing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia’s military dictatorship aims to maintain the status-quo and the occupation of the internationally-recognized Azerbaijani territories.

Frequent ceasefire violations aggravate the situation, making the Azerbaijani Army to retaliate the enemy.

As top Azerbaijani officials have stated, the Azerbaijani Army stands ready to liberate the occupied lands by the military means if necessary.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, the Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces.

Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.