YEREVAN—After completing another round of talks in the region and the monitoring of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic-Azerbaijan border on foot, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmen issued an announcement Thursday, calling on the sides to respect the ceasefire.
They said ceasefire violations “demonstrate the need to implement the proposed mechanism to investigate incidents along the front-lines.”
Below is the text of the announcement:
The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of the Russian Federation) and Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk (Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office) traveled November 28-30 to Yerevan and Baku. The Co-Chairs were accompanied by Ambassador Jacques Faure, who will succeed Ambassador Fassier as the French Co-Chair of the Minsk Group. In Yerevan the Co-Chairs met with President Sarkisian, Foreign Minister Nalbandian, and Defense Minister Ohanyan; in Baku they met with President Aliyev, Foreign Minister Mammadyarov, and Defense Minister Abiyev. In all these meetings, the Co-Chairs reaffirmed the strong commitment of their countries to assisting the sides in achieving a lasting and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Noting recent reports of incidents along the Line of Contact, the Co-Chairs stressed again to the Presidents the importance of respecting the 1994 ceasefire agreement. They reiterated that such incidents demonstrate the need to implement the proposed mechanism to investigate incidents along the front-lines, on which the Presidents have agreed in principle. The Co-Chairs also discussed additional measures for enhancing confidence through people-to-people exchanges and efforts to preserve places of worship, cultural sites, and cemeteries.
On November 29, the Co-Chairs crossed the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan by foot, and met on each side with local officials to discuss the situation in the border region. On November 30, the Co-Chairs met with representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijanis, and underscored that a peaceful settlement must include the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence.
Looking ahead to the December OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Vilnius, the Co-Chairs urged the sides to use this opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to seeking a peaceful settlement and moving beyond the unacceptable status quo.
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Hope for peace but prepare for war is what Armenia needs to do at a greater pace. The NKR army needs to build bunkers to protect soldiers from snipers and use armoured vehicles for patrol purposes to also protect from snipers.
The status quo is the result of the Azeri violence: should they have had not started to kill the Armenians in Baku, there was not such a bloody war.
Why does nobody talks about the displaced Armenians formerly living in Baku?
There is only one solution: Azerbaijan to acknowledge and accept the situation, same like Kosovars are doing with Serbians. That’s it. Who will resume the war, will be responsible of all consequences.
impossible for turks to ever relocate back to their former residences. armenians will never move back to baku and sumgait so it wouldnt be fair. never
Investigating the incidents will assign responsibility and that would expose Azerbaijan’s game. Nice statement from OSCE but without the ability to remove the snipers, the wish list continues. What does Azerbaijan have to lose. They already lost the land, there is no enforcement of the agreement and it keeps their people deceived and they attempt to draw the Armenians into an escalation. There is no downside from their perpsective. All we can do is show restraint and win the public relations war…. and in the mean time keep building the country.