VIENNA, October 31. /TASS/. During Friday’s talks in Geneva, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to take a series of measures to promote the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, such as to avoid deliberate strikes on civilian population and non-military facilities, the press service of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said.
Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States) met separately and jointly with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Geneva on October 30. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. They also held consultations with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and ICRC President Peter Maurer.
“Without prejudice to the implementation of the ceasefire or other commitments, the sides agreed to take a number of steps on an urgent basis: the sides will not deliberately target civilian populations or non-military objects in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the OSCE press service said in a statement.
“The sides will actively engage in the implementation of the recovery and exchange of remains on the battlefield by providing the ICRC and PRCiO the necessary safety guarantees for facilitation,” the statement reads. “The sides will deliver to the ICRC and PRCiO, within one week, a list of currently detained prisoners of war for the purposes of providing access and eventual exchange.”
Besides, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to provide written comments and questions related to possible ceasefire verification mechanisms in accordance with the October 10 joint statement.
Co-chairs of the Minsk Group stressed that the sides had an open and substantive exchange of views aimed at clarifying their negotiating positions on core elements of a comprehensive solution to the crisis.
“The Co-Chairs will continue working with the sides intensively to find a peaceful settlement of the conflict,” OSCE said.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.
On the evening of October 25, Azerbaijan and Armenia approved a third humanitarian ceasefire for Nagorno-Karabakh brokered by the US, which was set to enter into force in the morning of October 26. However, both sides accused each other of violating the agreement immediately after the ceasefire came into effect.
Moscow brokered a humanitarian ceasefire that took effect at 12 noon local time on October 10 but was violated. Later, the foreign ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced plans to declare another ceasefire at midnight on October 18, but the hostilities continued and the warring parties kept blaming each other for violating the truce.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs – Russia, France and the United States.
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