OSCE military experts develop mechanisms to investigate incidents on the line of contact in Karabakh
05.03.2012,
14:38
The OSCE military experts are engaged in the development of mechanisms to investigate incidents on the line of contact between Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov , told reporters in Stepanakert, after meeting with president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan.
YEREVAN, March 5. / ARKA /. The OSCE military experts are engaged in the development of mechanisms to investigate incidents on the line of contact between Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov , told reporters in Stepanakert, after meeting with president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan
.
The meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Robert Bradtke (USA), Igor Popov (Russia) and Jacques Faure (France) took place on Saturday in NKR capital Stepanakert.
According to Popov, the mediators presented the details of the latest talks on the Karabakh conflict held in Russian Sochi involving the residents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, who among other things, discussed also creation of mechanisms to investigate incidents on the contact line.
"We have transferred our ideas and plans to the military experts of the OSCE and we hope that the initial results of their work will be ready by the end of this month, Popov said.
'Over the past few years we have been working on the proposed basic principles for a settlement. The work is slower than we would like it to be, but nevertheless, progress is evident, as was stated in Sochi," Popov said.
The American co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group, Robert Bradtke, described the meeting with president Sahakyan useful.
"The meeting was useful. We discussed the situation on the contact line, as well as recent developments around the resolution of conflict, " Bradtke told reporters after talks with Sahakyan.
He said they would return to Yerevan on Sunday and then head for Baku on Monday to meet with Azerbaijani president Ilham Alive and foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Bradtke expressed confidence that the new French mediator Jacques Faure will make a great and useful contribution to the mediation efforts.
Nagorno-Karabakh, populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan following a three-year war that left some 30,000 dead. A Russia-brokered ceasefire ended the hostilities in 1994, but peace has remained fragile since then. The current Minsk Group-mediated negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have not brought a peace agreement yet.
The latest peace plan of the international mediators calls for the Armenian withdrawal from some of the territories held by the Karabakh military, the return of displaced people, security guarantees for Karabakh and its Armenian population and the possibility of a future referendum to decide the area’s final legal status.-0-
