Azernews.Az

By Sarah Rajabova, AzerNews Staff Writer

The OSCE monitoring group held a regular monitoring on the contact line between the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces in Azerbaijani Aghdam region on Aug. 23, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported.

No incident occurred during the monitoring held by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk`s field assistant Antal Herdich and Office coordinator Peter Kee on the Azerbaijani side, and OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk`s field assistant Jiri Aberle and personal assistant William Pryor, on the opposite side, which the international community recognizes as Azerbaijani territory.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war over the Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaiian after Armenia`s territorial claims in 1988. As a result, about one million Azerbaijanis became refugees in their native lands. Since the fragile ceasefire accord signed in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territory, in defiance of international law. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council`s four resolutions on its pullout from Nagorno Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions.

The OSCE monitoring group holds regular monitoring on the contact at least once every month and another monitoring is scheduled for Aug. 29 in the Qazakh region. Although OSCE announces about absence of incidents every time, the statistics of ceasefire breaches is horrifying. The units of Armenian armed forces violate the ceasefire regime almost every day. So, do we need OSCE monitoring if they are useless in fact?

Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire regime on the frontline by 137 times in July. As a result of the violation of ceasefire regime, two soldiers of Azerbaijani Army were killed, three soldiers were injured from the enemy bullet and two in the landmine blast, while one solder was captured.

The majority of breaches were recorded in the direction of Aghdam district, where 36 cases were fixed. Armenian armed forces fired the Azerbaijani Army positions, as well as the settlements near to border.

Besides, 24 ceasefire violation incidents were fixed in the direction of Fizuli district, 21 in the direction of Goranboy region, 7 in the direction of Jabrayil region, 5 in the direction of Khojavand region, 4 in the direction of Tartar region and one in the direction of Goygyol district.

The majority of the ceasefire violations in the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan was recorded in the direction of Qazakh district were the Armenian army fired the Azerbaijani positions by 20 times. Eight incidents were fixed in the direction of Tovuz and Gadabay, one in the direction of Aghstafa and Dashkasan and one in a border between the Armenia-Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

In total, Armenian armed Forces violated the ceasefire by 851 times in January to July. In particular, the heavy fighting went in all direction of the frontline in June. On June 5, the Armenian subversive group tried to attack the Azerbaijani Army`s position in Qazakh region and killed five Azerbaijani soldiers.

The ceasefire violations target not only the soldiers, but also civilians. The life in the border villages has almost paralyzed. The inhabitants, livestock and fields are always under fire. Because of heavy fighting the residents of the border villages can`t plant their fields and graze the cattle in the noon. They are obliged to work at nights mostly.

The Armenian armed forces use snipers in the frontline. Armenia has increased the number of the snipers in the state border with Azerbaijan, local news agency APA reported quoting the military sources in the Azerbaijani Army. By the order of the Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan, a large number of snipers were transferred to different positions of the Armenian Army. Thus, Armenia wants to increase the accurate death of Azerbaijani soldiers and civilians.

On March 8, in 2011, nine-year-old Fariz Badalov was deadly shot in the head by a sniper while playing in the courtyard in Aghdam region. He was the only child of his family. The international organizations condemned this brutal action of Armenian invaders.

In July of the same year the 13-year-old Azerbaijani girl Aygun Shahmaliyeva became a new victim of Armenia`s inhumane and immoral policy in the Alibayli village of Azerbaijan`s Tovuz region, which borders Armenia. The Armenian side deliberately dropped a toy with an explosive device into the river flowing to the village. Aygun, who found the toy, brought it home and the innocent girl tragically died as a result of the explosion, while her mother injured.

Although both UN and the PACE condemned such terror-subversive actions of Armenia, no sanction was applied against Armenia and no one was punished.

Since the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1994, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - have been mediating the peace negotiations. They offered several solution options over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, the conflict sides haven`t accepted these proposals. The activity of the OSCE Minsk Group has been fruitless and the society lost the trust on this organization over the solution of the conflict. So, the authorities in Azerbaijan often criticize the mediation activity of the OSCE Minsk Group.

For instance, MP, chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party Asim Mollazade said that the activity of the Minsk Group has turned into a kind of political tourism. The Azerbaijani public is today fairly resented over the activity of the Minsk Group and their concessions to Armenia, he said.

"Our stance is clear, the aggressor must be forced to peace."