Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The OSCE has urged Armenia to heed Azerbaijan’s calls to hold negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“This can contribute to a peaceful and lasting settlement," James Warlick, the U.S. co-chairman from the OSCE Minsk Group, engaged in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, told Armenian media.

Warlick also noted that the U.S. fully supports the introduction of the OSCE investigation mechanism to verify the allegations of ceasefire violations along the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

Earlier, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Warlick of the U.S., and Pierre Andrieu of France called for Baku and Yerevan to accept a mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations.

This came as the co-chairs met on September 24 with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, and on September 25 with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in New York as part of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.

The situation on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops remained tense during past several days as the Armenian military continued to break the ceasefire using large-caliber machine guns. Frequent shelling by the Armenian military has put the lives of the residents of Azerbaijan’s frontline settlements in danger and has resulted in casualties.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently expressed his concern over the current tensions along Armenian-Azerbaijani border, stressing the need for a settlement mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, the Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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