Negotiators’ warnings

OSCE Minsk Group has denounced the armed incident on the armed forces’ contact line in the conflict area.

Recent clashes on the Azerbaijani-Armenian armies’ contact line in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area have  again underlined the acute necessity of a prompt resolution to the conflict. Sporadic skirmishes in the conflict area have occurred previously. However, the
deterioration of the Karabakh frontline situation is sure to be inseparably linked with the conflict settlement deadlock. The recent meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, in St. Petersburg on June 17th, mediated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was fruitless. It caused the outburst of activity on the contact line. Both sides have advanced their own versions of events, accusing each other of initiating the clash of June 18-19.

Experts of the OSCE Minsk Group monitoring mission will find out who initiated the shooting on the frontline. Undoubtedly, the armed clash of June 18-19 was advantageous to both parties.

The OSCE Minsk Group  has made a formal statement, in which the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov (Russia), Bernard Fassier (France) and Robert Bradtke (USA) - have denounced the armed incident of June 18-19 on the troops’ contact line in the conflict
zone.

The declaration emphasizes that there is no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the conflict through negotiations. The diplomats urged the parties to cooperate comprehensively with the OSCE Chairman’s Personal Representative, Andrzej Kasprzyk, and do nothing to hamper
him in his monitoring activities.

Eugene Krishtalev. Exclusive for VK