Armenia says OSCE report on Nagorno-Karabakh won’t reduce tensions

AP Worldstream
Apr 17, 2005

Armenia reacted negatively to an OSCE report on the tense situation in
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, saying didn’t take enough
notice of cease-fire violations by Azerbaijan.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Gamlet Gasparyan on Saturday repeated his
country’s assertions that Azerbaijan was responsible for continued
violations along the enclave’s front lines. He said the OSCE report,
released Friday by the organization’s so-called Minsk Group, should
have done more to underscore that.

The OSCE report voiced concerns about growing tensions and cease-fire
violations and called on all sides to refrain from inflammatory public
statements.

“The noticeable caution by the co-chairmen (in the report) … will
not promote the preservation of the cease-fire regime,” Gasparyan
said. “We expect that the co-chairmen and those interested in
preserving stability in the region will take more decisive steps.”

Azerbaijan, which has not reacted publicly to the report, blames
Armenia and Karabakh Armenians for stoking tensions.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan that has
been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s,
following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people. A
cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave’s final political
status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently
between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer
zone.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress