Armenia says OSCE mediators’ Karabakh report not to ease tension

Mediamax news agency
18 Apr 05

Yerevan, 18 April: The Armenian Foreign Ministry press secretary,
Gamlet Gasparyan, has said that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen
should take a “tougher” stance in order to prevent truce violations
in the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict zone. The Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman said this commenting on the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen’s
statement issued last week [15 April], in which they urged the
conflicting sides to maintain truce, refrain from calls for war and to
prepare their populations for a compromise agreement, Mediamax reports.

“Since it is Azerbaijan which makes bellicose statements, the
co-chairmen’s statement obviously applies to them. However, if the
statement aimed at putting an end to the truce violations, we do
not think that it would yield any results, unless the violators are
brought to account,” Gamlet Gasparyan said.

The press secretary noted that “in a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen, the Armenian authorities noted that the main reason
behind the truce violations is that Azerbaijan is confident that it
will go unpunished.”

“It is evident that Azerbaijan is openly violating the truce but
nevertheless nobody wants to name the authors of these violations”,
Gamlet Gasparyan said, adding that “as a result, they can continue
violating the truce”, he said.