YEREVAN ACCUSES BAKU OF IGNORING MEDIATOR APPEAL TO BOLSTER TRUCE IN KARABAKH CONFLICT ZONE

Interfax, Russia
March 3 2014

YEREVAN. March 3

Azerbaijan has been ignoring the proposals by the co-chairmen of the
OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Minsk
Group to reinforce the peace regime in the Karabakh conflict zone,
Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan has said.

“The situation on the Armenian-Azeri border and the line of contact
between the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan has
escalated again, leading to human casualties, over the past few
days, as a result of provocations by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces,”
Nalbandyan told reporters on Tuesday.

Azerbaijan “has thus expressed its attitude towards the exhortations
by the OSCE Minsk Group mediators of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
to strictly abide by the truce and avoid doing anything that would
escalate the situation,” he said.

“In their statement issued after visiting the region, the co-chairmen
noted that the presidents (of Armenia and Azerbaijan) had agreed to
discuss the mediators’ proposals to reinforce the truce regime. With
these provocations, Baku shows once again that it ignores the
co-chairmen’s proposals,” the Armenian foreign minister said..

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen – Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick
(United States) and Pierre Andre (France) – visited the region on
February 16-19, following which they issued a statement that the
Azeri and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsian,
respectively, were ready to consider their proposals to facilitate
a stronger ceasefire.

During their visits the co-chairmen met with the presidents, foreign
and defense ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the
authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The main purpose of their visit was to ask the conflicting parties
to strictly abide by the ceasefire after a dangerous rise of violence
in January.

During the talks with the co-chairmen, the parties reaffirmed their
commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict. The
co-chairmen discussed with the presidents and foreign ministers further
steps towards the conflict resolution, as well as preparations for
the presidents’ future meeting this year.