OSCE to monitor contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone December 8

BAKU, December 7. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor compliance with the ceasefire on the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on December 8, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday. "In accordance with the mandate of the personal representative of the current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, it is planned to conduct the next monitoring on the line of engagement of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Agdam District on December 8," the ministry said, adding that the monitoring will be held on both sides by field assistants to the personal representative of the current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. The situation along the line of engagement of the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2. Following fierce armed clashes along the contact line, the parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. On April 5, Russia mediated a meeting between Colonel-General Najmeddin Sadykov, the chief of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces General Staff, and Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, that took place in Moscow. The parties agreed to cease the hostilities on the line disengaging the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. Ever since, the parties occasionally report brief exchanges of fire along the contact line. A trilateral statement adopted at the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in St. Petersburg on June 20 confirmed the parties’ commitment to normalizing the situation along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh. Read more