Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group concerned over incidents on contact line in Karabakh conflict zone

Igor Popov (Russia), Robert Bradtke (USA), and Jacques Faure (France), the co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, who visited Yerevan and Baku on May 11-14, expressed their concern over incidents on the contact line in the conflict zone.

"The co-Chairs expressed their concern over the incidents along the contact line and encouraged the parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from retaliation," states the report on the results of the regional visit, posted on the official website of the OSCE. At the same time, mediators have positively assessed confirmation of the parties' commitment to find peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The meetings held in Baku and Yerevan discussed fulfilment of commitments undertaken by Presidents Ilham Aliev and Serzh Sargsyan in this January in their joint statement in Sochi, including acceleration of work on agreement on basic principles as a basis for peaceful settlement, development of mechanisms for investigating violations of ceasefire, and implementation of humanitarian contacts, the "Trend" reports.

Besides, the meeting discussed importance of preserving and protecting endangered Armenian and Azerbaijani cultural and historical values to protect the common heritage of the nations of the region during the negotiation process, the IA "Novosti-Armenia" reports.

The report also emphasizes that in the nearest future, the co-Chairs intend to continue negotiations with the Foreign Ministers of both countries.