The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Wednesday delivered an address at the Special Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

As regards to the continued violations of the ceasefire on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact, Nalbandian specifically stated as follows:

In 2014, the year of 20th anniversary of the signing of the cease-fire agreement between Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Baku significantly escalated the situation by drastically increasing the ceasefire violations and targeting civilian areas, including with the use of heavy weaponry. It has claimed unprecedented high number of casualties among all parties to the conflict. Azerbaijan having an almost total control of mass media conceals the real number of its losses caused by its provocations.

In this situation of ongoing escalation as a result of Azerbaijan’s destructive stance the Co-Chairs met with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and (I quote from the press-release of the Co-chairmen) “expressed serious concern about reported incursions across the Line of Contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border”. They directly urged (and I quote) “Azerbaijan to observe its commitments to a peaceful resolution of the conflict” (end of quote). We are glad that the Co-chairs have eventually responded to our calls to clearly identify the side responsible for the violence. However, nothing restrains Azerbaijan. Not even the calls of Co-Chair Countries to refrain from provocative actions especially on the eve of and during religious holidays. Azerbaijan intensified its attacks on the New Year and Christmas holidays causing several casualties.

During their last visit to the region in February the Co-Chairs stated: “the Presidents agreed to consider proposals from the Co-Chairs that could strengthen the ceasefire”. However, immediately after the regional visit of the Co-Chairs Azerbaijan rejected the proposals and further escalated the situation displaying its flagrant disrespect to the proposals of the Co-Chairs.

The implementation of the agreement on the mechanism to investigate the incidents on the Line of Contact, together with other proposals on confidence and security building measures made by the Co-Chairs could be an important tool for prevention of such incidents and creation of the environment conducive for the peace talks. However, Azerbaijan continuously rejects numerous proposals of Co-Chairs on consolidation of the cease-fire, withdrawal of snipers and on other confidence building measures.