Azernews.Az

BAKU – Deadly skirmishes on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops are troubling, says an official of OSCE, which is brokering talks on settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"20 deadly incidents were reported there this year alone. And the reports on civilian casualties are of particular concern," Poland’s Adam Kobieracki, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, told Russia’s Moskovskie Novosti newspaper.

Kobieracki recalled that the OSCE chief has recently urged the conflict parties to remove snipers from the frontline.

"I am disappointed that the parties have not yet enforced their agreement reached this year in Sochi [during the Russian-brokered talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders] to investigate incidents along the contact line," Kobieracki said.

He added that it was pivotal to keep up the pressure on Baku and Yerevan and welcomed the Russian president’s personal efforts aimed at reaching a settlement to the long-running dispute.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Efforts by US, Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have been largely fruitless so far.