OSCE to monitor contact line in direction of Fizuli

According to agreement with the Artsakh authorities, OSCE mission today will monitor the line of contact of Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan armed forces, in the direction of Fizuli, Artsakh Republic Foreign Ministry reports.

From NKR Defense Army positions the monitoring will be led by Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Imre Palatinus and his Field Assistants Hristo Hristov and Zhaslan Nurtazin.

On Azerbaijan’s side the monitoring will be led by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Antal Herdic and William Pryor.

The Nagorno-Karabakh (armed) conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units) under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen (Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals, presented in November, 2007.

Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race in the region and openly violating on of the basic principles of the international law non-use of force or threat of force.