OSCE Minsk Group issues statement on incident during monitoring

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office issued a statement, urging Armenia and Azerbaijan to investigate yesterday’s incident that caused the OSCE mission to stop the monitoring in the conflict zone.

The statement reads:

“OSCE teams led by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, took part in a monitoring exercise on the southern part of the Line of Contact. Following the usual exchange of security guarantees by local commanders on both sides of the Line of Contact, members of both OSCE teams heard shooting as they approached their observation points. It was not possible to determine from where the shots were fired. Safety and security concerns prompted the Personal Representative to abandon the exercise.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are aware that all those involved in facilitating OSCE monitoring exercises show a high degree of professionalism. They believe that this exceptional and regrettable incident undermines the work of these individuals, and of the Personal Representative and his team, as well as the ceasefire agreement of May 1994. The Co-Chairs urge the relevant authorities to investigate it thoroughly and impartially.”

The Foreign Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic said yesterday that monitoring was stopped because of shots fired from automatic weapons from the Azerbaijani side. According to the press service of Foreign Ministry, shots were recorded by observation groups of both sides.