Energy-producing Azerbaijan, host to oil majors including BP , Chevron and ExxonMobil, frequently threatens to take Nagorno-Karabakh back by force and is spending heavily on its armed forces.
Fighting between ethnic Azeris and Armenians first erupted in 1991 and a ceasefire was called in 1994. But Azerbaijan and Armenia have regularly traded accusations of further violence around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Azeri-Armenian border.
Nagorno-Karabakh runs its own affairs with heavy military and financial backing from Armenia since the war that killed about 30,000 people two decades ago. Armenian-backed forces also seized seven Azeri districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.
Efforts to reach a permanent settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have failed despite mediation led by France, Russia and the United States.
The OSCE has expressed concern about the intense upsurge in violence along the frontline that has resulted in casualties among Azeri soldiers and ethnic Armenian separatists.
OSCE officials have also said they were deeply concerned about shooting at a clearly marked International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicle while it was assisting the local population on the Armenian-Azeri border.
They strongly condemned the deliberate targeting of civilians and shooting at representatives of international organisations.
"Retaliation and further violence will only make it more difficult to continue efforts to bring about a lasting peace," the OSCE head and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group said in a statement on Saturday.
(Reuters)
Bakudaily.az
