Mediators ‘Urge’ Baku to Accept Mechanism to Investigate Ceasefire Violations

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia (l.), Pierre Andrieu of France (m.) and James Warlick of the United States (r.).

Following a round of talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in New York, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs issued a statement on September 26 urging Baku to agree to a mechanism that could investigate ceasefire violations.

The statement said that without this mechanism, “the sides will continue to blame each other for initiating deadly attacks on the Line of Contact and Armenia-Azerbaijan border.” According to the Co-Chairs, Armenia has agreed to discuss the details of the mechanism and that they were urging Azerbaijan to do the same.

Following several days of bloody fighting, resulting in civilian and military casualties, the Co-Chairs condemned the use of artillery that caused the casualties and said “An escalation of violence is not in the interest of Azerbaijanis or Armenians or a negotiated settlement.”

While the mediators encouraged the sides to implement people-to-people programs to ‘build trust’ they failed to mention that if the Armenian side even wanted to engage in people-to-people programs, there are no reliable partners for them to do so due to the repressive Azerbaijani regime, which has suppressed civil society organizations and imprisoned both journalists and human rights activists in the country.

The Foreign Ministers agreed to continue preparations with the Co-Chairs for the next presidential summit, which is expected to be held at the end of this year.

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On the evening of September 24, as a result of heavy shelling by the Azerbaijani side, one Armenian civilian was killed in the village of Paravakar and two in the village of Berdavan in the Tavush region; another two civilians were injured.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry issued a statement at the time about the tense situation saying that Armenian military forces will take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation, the consequences of which will be on the shoulders of Azerbaijani leadership.

On September 25, four young soldiers of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army were killed near the northeastern section of the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. According to a statement by the NKR Defense Ministry, Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire on Armenian frontline positions using Turkish-manufactured rocket propelled howitzers.

That same day, Armenia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Nalbandyan met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in New York in the presence of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.