VIENNA (Public Radio of Armenia) — OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for the creation of a mechanism to investigate violations in the Karabakh conflict zone.
“As regards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, armed clashes along the line of contact and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan give us cause for concern,” the OSCE Chairman-in-Office wrote in an article published by the Huffington Post.
“Germany is campaigning for an intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. One important step to this end would be the creation of a mechanism to investigate violations of the ceasefire,” he added.
Steinmeier said the conflicts in Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Southern Caucasus cannot be called “frozen.” “Each year they continue to bring hardship to the people affected and stagnation to the regions involved. We want to stabilize the ceasefires, build trust and improve the day-to-day lives of the people by taking small but tangible steps, such as improving economic exchange.”
On February 4, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the south-east direction of Kuropatkino settlement of the NKR Martuni region.
From the positions of the Karabakh Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and his Field Assistants Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria), as well as by representative of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group (HLPG) Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Nepokritikh (Russia).
From the opposite side of the line of contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic), Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden), as well as by representative of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group (HLPG) Colonel Tuncay Sevim (Turkey).
The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.
From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.
