Parties to Karabakh conflict need to engage in direct talks: OSCE envoy

PanARMENIAN.Net - It is necessary to persuade the parties to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to begin direct negotiations, despite the current thorny background, the Russian Ambassador to the OSCE said.

According to Alexander Lukashevich, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has the exclusive responsibility to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, while other organizations may only help.

“Both the OSCE and the parties have a 100% responsibility for what is going on in the conflict zone,” Alexander Lukashevich said during a live video linkup.

Lukashevich also said that peacekeepers can be deployed in Nagorno Karabakh once a political settlement has been reached in the region.

“The peacekeeping operation has already been more or less worked out long ago,” Lukashevich said.

The parties to the Karabakh conflict agreed on a bilateral ceasefire along the contact line which came into force at midday, April 5.

Prior to that, on the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

As many as 44 Karabakh servicemen were killed and 122 were wounded in the course of military operations.

As of April 5, the Azerbaijani side has lost 26 tanks and 4 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 1 BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher, 1 engineering vehicle, 2 military helicopters and 11 unmanned aerial vehicles. The Azerbaijani side has admitted the loss of 31 fighters, 1 helicopter and 1 unmanned drones, whereas the Armenian side's photo and video materials show dozens of killed Azerbaijani troops, 1 helicopter and 3 UAVs.

14 Karabakh tanks have been neutralized since April 2.