Kazimirov: incidents at frontline nothing but cynical means to aggravate tension

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Divergence of statements made by the Azeri and Armenian Defense Ministries as regards incidents at the contact line is not a novelty. There are plenty of mutually excluding statements," former Russian Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net



"It's not hard to clarify their essence. How do skirmishes influence on the situation? First of all, it's a cynical means to aggravate tension and incite hatred toward the adversary, to test the positions and efficiency. Incidents emerge by another reason as well. Refusing to move away the frontline, Baku preserved the previous distance between the armed forces (several hundreds meters, as it used to be during the war) and even tried to shorten it lately. Not only soldiers and officers but also civilians die. Here a question arouses: what is more important - people's life or maintenance of tension? Which side is interested in strained atmosphere at the contact line? Isn't it the one threatening with revenge?" he said.



"There is one more aspect. On Russia's initiative, February 4, 1995 all three parties to the conflict signed a ceasefire agreement under the aegis of the OSCE. They undertook to communicate in order to localize and settle the conflict as well as prevent development of enemy propaganda. The document was signed by the Defense Ministers with the approval of Heydar Aliyev, Levon Ter-Petrosian and Robert Kocharian.



However, the sides fail to obey the agreement. When I pointed out to the anomaly, Armenia's Serge Sargsyan and NK's Seyran Ohanyan over 2 years ago publicly announced they are ready to fulfill the provisions of the agreement if Baku does the same. However, Safar Abiyev was not capable to utter anything, except for threats. Even tactful Elmar Mammadyarov drags out the problem until final resolution of the conflict. Baku doesn't seem to need either Karabakh's participation in the agreement or close contacts between the sides. And finally, it seems quite disinterested in settling the incidents," Amb. Kazimirov said.

Full text of the interview