Azerbaijan keeps violating Karabakh ceasefire: Armenia foreign minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan continues violating the 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreements, threatening to solve the Nagorno Karabakh issue by force, Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian told OSCE envoys on Thursday, February 16.

Nalbandian was meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs Igor Popov, Stéphane Visconti and Richard Hoagland, as well as Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Munich.

At the meeting, Nalbandian noted that "Azerbaijan continues ceasefire violations in defiance of commitments and numerous demands of Minsk Group co-chairing countries. "

The sides further stressed the necessity of implementation of agreements reached at Vienna and Saint-Petersburg summits, aimed to create conditions for pushing the Karabakh peace process forward.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev met on June 20 in Saint Petersburg to address the conflict, with Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating the talks. The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents confirmed their commitment to the implementation of agreements reached at a Vienna-hosted meeting on May 16. To that end, they agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Karabakh conflict zone. Also, they expressed satisfaction that the ceasefire was now holding. Prior to that, a meeting between both leaders was organized on May 16 in Vienna, with top diplomats from the Minsk Group co-chairing countries hosting the summit.