Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh are working on additional measures needed to strengthen the cease-fire between the two South Caucasus foes, they said in a statement.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States – began their visit in Baku on Monday. They will further hold talks in Yerevan and Nagorno Karabakh until Friday to discuss "additional actions necessary to strengthen the cease-fire, to promote a spirit of compromise by all parties, and to finalize modalities for further action", says the statement, posted on the OSCE website on Monday.

During the third week of September, the co-chairs will travel to Washington and then to New York "to work with the sides on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly".

It also said that as part of their efforts to facilitate negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh settlement, the Minsk Group co-chairs expect to be particularly active in the months leading up to the OSCE Summit in Astana, due December 1-2.

Between late September and mid October, the co-chairs will return to the region to conduct the field assessment mission to observe the humanitarian situation in the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh that they had discussed previously with the sides. A team of high-level advisors and experts, including representatives from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and others, are expected to accompany the co-chairs on their mission, which will be the first international mission in these territories since the OSCE fact-finding mission in early 2005. Shortly thereafter, the co-chairs will brief the OSCE Minsk Group in Vienna on their findings. Then the co-chairs will present their annual activity report to the OSCE Permanent Council and actively prepare the OSCE summit with the sides.

"During this period of intense activity, the co-chairs urge all parties to respect strictly the cease-fire and to exercise restraint on the ground, to make every effort to foster the spirit of compromise necessary to make progress, to abstain from inflammatory public statements, and to demonstrate the convincing political will to engage in serious dialogue."

Concerning the recent deadly skirmishes on the frontline, the co-chairs strongly condemned any violation of the cease-fire and, in particular, "incursions across the Line of Contact", which led to "useless loss of life".

The mediators recalled the statement by the OSCE ministers in Almaty, which said that "the use of force created the current situation, and its use again would only lead to suffering, devastation, and a legacy of conflict and hostility that would last for generations."

Two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in fighting on Saturday near rebel Nagorno Karabakh, in the second clash in days on the frontline. The shooting follows the clashes on August 31, in which two Azerbaijani and three Armenian soldiers were killed, according to the Azerbaijani ministry.

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev on Monday added to the co-chairs’ statement, saying he "strongly condemns" the recent ceasefire violations, voicing concern about the increase in casualties on both sides.

"I emphasize that any violation of the ceasefire would destabilize the process of negotiations in the framework of the Minsk Conference, limiting opportunities to enhance constructive dialogue."

Saudabayev added that the intensified efforts of the Minsk Group co-chairs to foster a spirit of compromise ahead of the summit in Astana "will only be successful if all sides to the conflict demonstrate a genuine interest in achieving progress."

The European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby also expressed concern on Monday over the recent shootings on the Armenia-Azerbaijan frontline.

The sides reported that at least 16 soldiers have been killed on the line of contact in ceasefire violations this year.

Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war in the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory since then. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks have been fruitless so far.