Expert blog: OSCE MG and Kasprzyk made dangerous statement

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk issued today a statement concerning yesterday’s incident that prompted the OSCE mission to abandon the monitoring exercise in the Hadrut direction of the conflict zone.

The MFA and Defense Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic reported yesterday that monitoring was stopped because of shots fired from automatic weapons from the Azerbaijani side. Shots were recorded by the observation groups of both sides.

Today’s statement of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-office says that “it was not possible to determine from where the shots were fired”.

What was expected has happened. It is evident from the statement that the mediators, unwilling to deviate from the ‘set line’, again make a statement of a general nature, which is the go-ahead for Azerbaijan to take similar actions in the future.

Such incidents are the best evidence of why Azerbaijan consistently refuses to introduce mechanisms for investigation of incidents on the line of contact, of which the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are also aware.

The statement posted on the OSCE website can be described as dangerous – it does not have a preventive function, moreover, it contributes to a recurrence of such incidents. And it is not ruled out that in the future, shots will be 'destructive', rather than 'warning' ones.