Epress.am News from Armenia
On Apr. 13, according to an agreement with the authorities of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission monitored the Line of Contact of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces on the Akna-Barda road, Askeran direction, according to a statement issued by the press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh foreign affairs ministry.
From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring group was led by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (Russia), Robert Bradtke (USA), and Bernard Fassier (France) participated in the monitoring. They crossed the Line of Contact in a section, which had been cleared of landmines beforehand, with the aim of supporting Ambassador Kasprzyk in fair investigation of the incident taken place in this section on Mar. 8, 2011.
In the NKR territory, the monitoring group was comprised of Coordinator of the OSCE Office, Lieutenant-Colonel Imre Palatinus (Hungary) and Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Marius Puodziunas (Lithuania).
On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Christo Christov (Bulgaria), Antal Herdich (Hungary), and William Prior (Great Britain).
The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule, and no violation of the ceasefire regime was recorded.
From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense.
Recall that on Mar. 8, just hours after the meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in the Russian city of Sochi, Armenian media reported that the Azerbaijani side opened fire on the positions in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing an Armenian soldier while Azeri media reported that Armenian snipers had killed a 9-year-old child. Armenia’s Ministry of Defense refuted this claim.