The OSCE monitoring held on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia on May 15 passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said May 16. The monitoring was under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative in Azerbaijan’s Khojavend district.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by Mikhail Olaru and Martin Schuster, field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative. On the Azerbaijani territories, occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring will be held by Ognyen Yovic, Gennady Petrica and Simon Tiller, who are field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”