STATEMENT OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

DeFacto Agency
March 5 2008
Armenia

On the night of 3/4 March, a subversive and assault detachment of
the Azeri Armed Forces, composed of 20 servicemen, attacked the
front line of the NKR Defense Army near the settlement of Levonarkh,
NKR Martakert region, and temporarily took over the control of it,
thus breaking the requirements of the ceasefire regime.

The Office of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
passed the Azerbaijani side the legal demands to liberate the seized
post but they remained unsatisfied, despite the existing commitments
on possible incidents’ settlement in compliance with the Agreement of
February 6, 1995.The process encountered certain complications and the
NKR Armed Forces had to resort to adequate measures on restoration
of their defensive line. As a result of fighting, a subversive and
assault detachment was hurled back and suffered serious losses.

The NKR leadership considers this incident as a direct consequence of
a longstanding Azerbaijani policy of threat and military blackmail,
which leads to tension escalation in Azerbaijani and Karabakh conflict
zone undermining the regional security and stability and has not get
a decisive rebuff by the OSCE MG countries-co-chairs. The incident
on the contact line once more testifies to the necessity on taking
immediate measures by the international community on strengthening
ceasefire regime in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone and ensuring
irreversibility of peace which the Karabakhi side has repeatedly
urged both Azerbaijan and the international mediators.

In this connection the NKR leadership fully rests the responsibility
of the incident on the Azeri authorities and demands from the
international mediatory mission and the OSCE a thorough investigation
of causes and circumstances of the incident, an official political
evaluation of the Azeri authorities’ actions, as well as an immediate
conduction of a crisis-monitoring in the incident zone for preventing
a repetition of analogous violations of ceasefire regime in future.

A corresponding note reflecting the NKR authorities’ official viewpoint
on the given issue has been sent to the OSCE Chairman-in-Office,
OSCE MG co-chairs from the USA, Russia and France, as well as to the
office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-office.