No incident occur in monitoring of line of contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, June 17. /ARKA/. Wednesday’s planned monitoring of the line of contact between Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Azerbaijan armed forces recorded no incidents, the press office of NKR’s ministry of defense reported.

The monitoring was carried out at Omar Pass, as per the agreement with NKR’s authorities.

Field assistant and personal assistant to Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Irji Aberle (Czech Republic) and Simon Tiller (Great Britain) monitored the situation from the NKR army of defense side, together with representative of High Level Planning Group lieutenant colonel Aleksander Nepokrytikh (Russia). 

The monitoring from the opposite side was provided by Personal Representative of PSCE Chairman-in-Office Andjey Kasprshik and his field assistant Hristo Hristov (Bulgaria), together with a representative of the High level Planning Group colonel Tuncay Sevim (Turkey).

The monitoring was completed as per the schedule, no cease fire violations were recorded, says the report.

The observers’ mission members were accompanied by NKR’s foreign affairs and defense representatives. 

The Karabakh conflict started in 1988 when prevailingly Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh declared withdrawal from Azerbaijan. In a referendum on December 10, 1991, 99.89% of Nagorno-Karabakh population voted for independence from Azerbaijan. 

Azerbaijan responded by large-scale military operations that led to loss of control not only over Nagorno-Karabakh itself, but also over seven adjoining areas. About 25-30 thousand people were killed and about a million had to leave their homes during the military operations. 

A trilateral cease-fire agreement was signed on May 12, 2004, and has been followed since then. The ongoing Karabakh peace process started in 1992 under auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the USA, Russia and France. –0--