Armenia’s Foreign Minister Nalbandyan meeting with the OSCE Minks Group Co-Chairs.
On the evening of September 24, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan met with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov of Russia, James Warlick of the United States and Pierre Andrieu of France during his working visit to New York City. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk also took part in the meeting.
According to the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Nalbandyan expressed his indignation and concern over the gross violations of the ceasefire regime by Azerbaijan, which resulted in three civilian casualties.
“Azerbaijan has made a bad habit of escalating the situation on the Line of Contact in Artsakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border, even at the cost of human lives, prior to important visits to the region or high-level meetings, thus putting into question the appropriateness of meetings and impeding the negotiation process,” Nalbandyan said.
Strongly condemning the killings of three innocent civilians as a result of violations of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan, Nalbandyan said, “This provocation was Azerbaijan’s reaction to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ expectation of having effective negotiations between Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York.”
The possible steps for stabilizing the situation were discussed at the meeting.
***
On the evening of September 24, as a result of heavy shelling by the Azerbaijani side, one civilian was killed in the village of Paravakar and two in the village of Berdavan in the Tavush region; another two civilians were injured. Berdavan village mayor Ararat Gabrielyan told Radio Liberty that their injuries are not life threatening.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry issued a statement about the tense situation saying that Armenian military forces will take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation, the consequences of which will be on the shoulders of Azerbaijani leadership.”
On his twitter page, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick called upon both sides to put an end to the violence.
The Co-Chairs are in touch with officials in #Armenia and #Azerbaijan abt renewed violence urging an end to attacks and reprisals. #NKpeace
— James Warlick (@AmbJamesWarlick) September 24, 2015
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains relatively stable at the moment.
