BAKU, July 14. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor compliance with the ceasefire on the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on July 15, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.
"In accordance with the mandate of the personal representative of the current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, it is planned to conduct the next monitoring on the line of engagement of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops south of Azerbaijan’s city of Horadiz (Fizuli district) on July 15," the ministry said. It noted that the monitoring is conducted on both sides by field assistants to the personal representative of the current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and members of the High Level Planning Group.
The situation along the line of engagement of the conflicting parties in Nagorno-Karabakh deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2. Following fierce armed clashes along the contact line, the parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce.
On April 5, Russia mediated a meeting between Colonel-General Najmeddin Sadykov, the chief of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces General Staff, and Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, that took place in Moscow. The sides agreed to cease the hostilities on the line disengaging the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Armenia announced a ceasefire on the contact line as of 11:00 Moscow Time the same day. Ever since, the parties occasionally report brief exchanges of fire along the contact line.
A trilateral statement adopted at the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in St. Petersburg on June 20 confirmed the parties’ commitment to normalizing the situation along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.