OSCE persists in striving towards peaceful and durable settlement of NK conflict: Annual Report 2016 published

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Despite a deadly spike in the confrontation over Nagorno Karabakh and limited progress overall, the OSCE persists in striving towards peaceful and durable settlement to the conflict, according to the OSCE Annual Report 2016, reports Armenpress.

The Report says the conflicts in the OSCE area continued to dominate the Organization’s agenda in 2016. “In particular, the crisis in and around Ukraine remained a key concern throughout the year. In addition, the renewed escalation of violence in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in spring 2016 necessitated intensified crisis management. The German Chairmanship invested considerable efforts in addressing these and other conflicts with the aim of strengthening OSCE formats for conflict resolution and improving the living conditions of people affected by these conflicts”, stated in the Report.

As for the April events, the Report states that the OSCE Chairmanship reacted swiftly after the escalation of hostilities at the line of contact in April 2016, initiating a special meeting of the Permanent Council (PC) and advocating the implementation of agreements reached at the presidential level in Vienna and St. Petersburg concerning the expansion of the Office of the Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, and the establishment of an investigative mechanism. The Chairmanship called for the resumption of a political negotiation process to settle the conflict.

The Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk called 2016 a difficult year, adding that after the April events he visited the region 8 times. He and his team carried out 22 monitoring missions 5 out of which at Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and 17 at Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.