No incident during OSCE monitoring on Azerbaijani, Armenian armies’ contact line

An OSCE monitoring was held Feb. 4 along the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry has said the monitoring, held in line with the mandate of personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, passed without any incident.

OSCE’s monitoring took place near the village of Ashagi Veysalli of the Fizuli district of Azerbaijan.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistants of OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Peter Svedberg, Jiri Aberle, Simon Tiller and the representative of the OSCE High Level Planning Group, Colonel Tuncay Sevim.

On the opposite side, the monitoring was conducted by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the field assistants of OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Yevgeny Sharov, Hristo Hristov and the representative of the OSCE High Level Planning Group, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Nepokritikh.

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 withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

/By Trend/