Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs participated in an OSCE monitoring and crossed the line of contact from Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan today. Before that they had a meeting with NKR President Bako Sahakyan to discuss issues related to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov told reporters after the meeting they discussed the opportunities of organizing a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents. But the main issue on the agenda was the situation at the line of contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“The escalation of tensions and the use of heavy weapons are unacceptable. We’ll meet with army representatives to hold serious discussions on the issue,” Popov said.

“We are worried about the ceasefire violations, especially when heavy weapons are used,” US Co-Chairs James Warlick said during the OSCE monitoring.

“We intend to raise the issue during our meetings on the opposite side and hope to achieve progress,” Warlick said.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs successfully crossed the line of contact accompanied by Andrzey Kasprzyk, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office. However, the Azerbaijani side opened fire from machine guns at the end of the monitoring.