OSCE monitoring in Nagorno-Karabakh completed without incidents - Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry

BAKU, July 21. /TASS/. Another monitoring mission carried out by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Nagorno-Karabakh was completed without any incidents, the press service of Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Thursday. "Monitoring of ceasefire observance, carried out on July 21 on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces to the west of the Terter town in the Azerbaijani Republic was completed without incidents in accordance with a mandate of OSCE current chairman’s special representative," the press service said. Monitoring was carried out on both sides of the contact line by field assistants of OSCE current chairman’s special representative, the defense ministry added. On April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan. On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time. Though the ceasefire mostly holds, both sides continue to report occasional violations of ceasefire on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh. On May 16 the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Vienna. Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev agreed to "make steps to monitor observance of agreements on ceasefire and introduce a mechanism on investigating incidents." They also agreed to "possible resume the negotiations process on settling the conflict," the press service of the Armenian president said. In the trilateral declaration adopted on June 20 after the meeting between the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg, the sides confirmed adherence to normalizing the situation on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh. Read more