Armenia preparing for new provocations

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The OSCE held its regular monitoring on the contact line of the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces on November 18. The line is is located in 20 kilometers of a site where the combat helicopter crash incident occurred, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.

The statement was made to reject the reports in the Armenian media, claiming that Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk paid a visit to the crash site near Kangarli village of Aghdam district.

Azerbaijani troops shot down an Armenian Mi-24 military attack helicopter while it was attempting to breach Azerbaijan's airspace in that area and to attack the Azerbaijani army's positions on November 12. The debris of the downed helicopter fell on an area located in 500 meters of the frontline.

Spokesman for the Ministry Vagif Dargahli rejected the baseless Armenian media reports.

"These are just lies and we view them as a new provocation by the Armenian side," he stressed. "The monitoring was held on November 18 on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops near the village of Merzili in Agdam district - a pre-planned area located in 20 kilometers of the place where the chopper downed."

"Safety of the OSCE representatives is ensured only on the territory of the monitoring," Dargahli added.

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, 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.

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