The armed incidents and losses on the contact line between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh must urge both sides to resolve the Karabakh conflict as soon as possible, said the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

“The families and friends of the victims can reasonably expect that the senseless waste of life will galvanize all involved to make the very most of the opportunities presented over the next few weeks to move forward,” Trend News quotes Kasprzyk.

“Undoubtedly, the very presence of large numbers of armed service personnel facing each other year after year, often in very harsh environments, across short - in some cases very short -distances is the single biggest contributing factor to cease-fire violations,” he added.

According to him, the commanders of both sides point at a number of other factors that contribute to such incidents, including fire from different types of weapons and other actions that might be considered by the opposite side as an attempt to improve positions or security threat.

Kasprzyk formed a view on the situation due to monitoring conducted by OSCE representatives with the assistance of military officials and local commanders. 

“These monitoring exercises are not intended as investigations; this would require the consent of and co-operation between the sides, as well as a wider mandate and more resources for my office. Nor are they supposed be a peacekeeping measure. Nonetheless, they provide a vital 'snapshot', an effective and consistent way of assessing the situation on the ground, and a rare opportunity to lower tensions,” the source quotes him as saying

The OSCE official belives that, after the recent Toronto meeting, the co-chairing states undoubtedly expressed support for the presidents’ efforts to elaborate the basic principles and called on them to make an additional move to be able to draft a peaceful agreement.

On June 18, an Azeri task force intruded into the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. A resultant encounter killed four Armenian soldiers, leaving four injured. The Azeri task force retreated, leaving one dead.