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

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor compliance with the ceasefire along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.


"In accordance with the mandate of the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, it is planned to hold another monitoring on June 8 along the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijan troops east of Kuropatkino village of Khojavend District of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the ministry said. It noted that both sides of the contact line would be monitored by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.


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 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 sides agreed to cease the hostilities on the line disengaging the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia announced a ceasefire on the contact line as of 11:00 Moscow Time the same day. Ever since, the parties occasionally report brief exchanges of fire along the contact line.


The talks on Nagorno-Karabakh with the participation of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia mediated by the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Russia, the United States and France) were held on May 16 in Vienna. During the talks, it was decided to honor the truce in the region in accordance with the 1994-1995 agreements. The parties to the conflict also agreed to complete at an early date the work on the OSCE mechanism to investigate incidents along the line of contact. 

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