It has already become a pattern that a different snapshot is presented in the press release of the NKR Foreign Ministry and the NKR Defense Ministry pertaining to the situation in the contact line. For example, today’s NKR Foreign Ministry press release, which refers to the OSCE observation, reads, “The observation passed in accordance with the planned schedule, no cease-fire violations were reported. However, the Azerbaijani side has not taken the OSCE mission to its front-lines.”
While the press release of the NKR Defense Ministry on the same day reports about a dozen of ceasefire violations. “On November 18, in the morning of 19, the ceasefire regime was violated by the opponent at the NKR-Azerbaijani armed forces contact line for about 65 times, during which more than 900 shots were fired from various caliber weapons in the direction of Armenia’s position guards.”
Aravot.am asked NKR President’s spokesman David Babayan about the results of these confrontations, whether Azerbaijan is informed in advance about the observation mission and stops shooting, Mr. Babayan replied, “Monitoring is a mechanism that is put by the Minsk Group co-chairmanship as a part of peace process and one of the key mechanisms for the protection of the ceasefire. It has some peculiarities. When this monitoring is carried out in this or that side of the border, all the parties in advance are aware of the date, time and location. Naturally, the opponent mainly does not do any violations at that moment. Although, there have been cases when they had fired in the direction of co-chairs and observers, even a man was injured. But at the moment of the main observation, which generally lasts about half an hour, there might be no violation and then the opponent starts its violations.”
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To our question of how accordingly we can talk about the objective snapshot of the observation, Mr. Babayan replied, “This is also objective for the moment, but in general, we say that it is necessary to further develop these mechanisms, enhance and expand so that the observation should be a longer period and with devices, which will enable to fix the violations, unfortunately, Azerbaijani side refuses all of this, torpedoes and blows off any such approach.”
In response to our reminder that the OSCE Minsk Group American co-chair James Warlick also announced several days ago that Azerbaijan has not accepted the offer of the co-chairs pertaining to use of the OSCE investigation mechanisms in the contact line, hence how he will assess such an approach by the opponent country, David Babayan replied, “With such conduct, Azerbaijan once again shows that it is a criminal terrorist state. What it does is a terrorism. Azerbaijan is no different from these assailants of the Islamic state.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
