The Armenian side considers it necessary to increase the OSCE monitoring being conducted at the line of contact with Azerbaijan.

Lieutenant Colonel Andranik Mkrtumyan—representative of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces—informed this to OSCE Chairman-in-Office field assistants Hristo Hristov and Irji Aberle, during the OSCE monitoring on Monday.   

“On the average, three monthly monitoring were conducted last year. [But] In the [first] four months of this year, the monitoring reduced to until two, because the holding of so many monitoring is ‘inconvenient’ for the Azerbaijani side. We can conclude [therefore] that if the monitoring were not conducted at all, this would be more convenient for Baku,” Mkrtumyan noted, and stressed that no side should be allowed to dictate the monitoring terms.        

The Armenian side considers that the optimal is to conduct monitoring once a week. In Mkrtumyan’s words, the arrangement for the monitoring date and location often “causes problems” for the Azerbaijani side.

“We [, on the other hand,] almost always agree with the monitoring date and direction which the OSCE mission proposes,” Lieutenant Colonel Andranik Mkrtumyan recalled, and added: “You yourselves observe that the tension only escalates. The number of ceasefire violations is growing each year with geometric progression. Something needs to be done.”