Azernews.Az

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is expected to monitor the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on October 16, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported.

The monitoring will be held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, on the contact line located near the village of Bala Jafarli of Azerbaijan's Gazakh district, the ministry said.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring will be carried out by field assistants of OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Jiri Aberle and Peter Svedberg.

On the opposite side, the monitoring will be conducted by field assistants of OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Hristo Hristov and Simon Tiller.

During the monitoring, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk and OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Igor Popov (Russia), Pierre Andre (France), James Warlick (US), as well as Warlick's assistant David Salvo and Igor Popov's assistant Elena Kravchenko are expected to cross to the opposite side of the contact line from the territories controlled by Azerbaijani armed forces.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four U.N. Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.