March 10, 2011 - 10:36 AMT
Armenia hails OSCE MG initiative to hold monitoring of Karabakh conflict zone

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hails the initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs to conduct monitoring of the line of contact between the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces, a spokesman for the Ministry said.

“Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have always welcomed calls for removal of snipers from the line of contact to help avoid incidents and promote the conflict settlement,” Tigran Balayan said.

On March 9, the OSCE MG Co-chairs issued the following statement: "The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and Igor Popov of the Russian Federation) are deeply concerned by reports of cease-fire violations along the Line of Contact before and after the March 5 Sochi Summit. Such senseless acts, if confirmed, would contravene the commitment of the parties to refrain from the use of force and to seek a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The Co-Chairs have asked Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office, to carry out an immediate investigation with the participation of all sides, as agreed in the March 5 joint statement issued in Sochi by Presidents Dmitri Medvedev, Ilham Aliyev, and Serge Sargsian. The Co-Chairs will travel next week to the region, where they will call upon the parties to cooperate fully with the investigation. The Co-Chairs strongly condemn any loss of life, and urge all sides to exercise restraint, respect the 1994 ceasefire, and fulfill their obligations undertaken in Astrakhan in October 2010 and Sochi earlier this month."