YEREVAN. – The co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group have no mandate to announce which side violates the ceasefire, and therefore the Armenian side’s demand, according to which the name of the violator should be made public, is wrong.

Armenian Center of Political and International Studies analyst Ruben Mehrabyan stated the above-said at a press conference on Friday. He noted this reflecting on the co-chairs recent visit to the region, and the shots that were fired at the time of their monitoring.

“The Armenian side’s discontent is understandable, but we should not forget two things,” Mehrabyan continued. “The monitoring has no task to decide which side the [ceasefire] violations are from; they don’t have this mandate. (…) Second, Armenia, before complaining, should go against the fact of Russia’s arms sales to Azerbaijan.”

In his words, the Minsk Group co-chairs’ recent visit has three key points: They visited three capital cities—i.e. Yerevan, Stepanakert, and Baku—, they visited the region after the unprecedented border tensions in September, and shots were fired while they were crossing into Azerbaijan from Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The shots were followed by a statement that the presidents [of Armenia and Azerbaijan] are expected to meet by the year’s end,” Ruben Mehrabyan said. “I think this meeting will be after Armenia’s [December 6] referendum on constitutional amendments.”