ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /TASS/. Creating a mechanism to investigate truce violations would lay a good basis for talks on a settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
"Our position on the Karabakh issue is known to all. We wish this issue to be settled exclusively by peaceful means. And I would like to thank Russia as a co-chair of the Minsk Group for the understanding and efforts it pays to this issue," Sargsyan said.
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"Regrettably, such conflicts are never settled at the wish of one party. We would be glad if we managed to make progress today towards the implementation of the agreements that we have achieved, in other words, to create mechanisms of investigating truce violations. This would create a good working climate for talks," Sargsyan said.
For his part Putin agreed to discuss all these issues.
Tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh soared in the small hours of April 2 along the line of engagement between the conflicting parties. Fierce armed clashes resumed. Either party blamed the other for the breech of ceasefire.
On April 5 the chief of Azerbaijan’s General Staff, Colonel-General Nadjmeddin Sadykov and chief of Armenia’s General Staff Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov held a Russia-mediated meeting in Moscow. It was agreed to terminate all hostilities along the line separating Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. Later in the day the defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia declared ceasefire along the entire line of engagement starting from 11:00 Moscow time. Only brief and sporadic fire exchanges have been reported since.
At the Vienna talks on Nagorno-Karabakh between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, held with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, the United States and France) on May 16, a decision was made to observe truce in the region in the format of 1994-1995 agreements. Also, the parties to the conflict gave their consent to finalize within tight deadlines the work on the OSCE mechanism for investigating incidents on the line of engagement.