STEPANAKERT, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. Official Stepanakert positively assesses the discussion of issues relating to the humanitarian field by the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Artsakh President’s spokesperson Davit Babayan told Armenpress, stating that official Stepanakert has presented humanitarian proposals long ago. It’s another matter that they have been ignored by Azerbaijan.

“They would allow to strengthen the ceasefire regime and reduce the number of violations. In particular, the withdrawal of snipers from the border, the exclusion of ceasefire violations during national, international and religious holidays. Azerbaijan hasn’t reacted to this in any way, moreover, it further aggravated the violations”, Davit Babayan said. He added that they have made a proposal to maintain the ceasefire regime during the harvest. Whereas, Azerbaijan was firing shots especially during the harvest, firing the fields, although there have been many cases when these fires spread to the Azerbaijani territory due to wind.

“We have raised this issue many times both to the co-chairs and other international organizations in order to give solution to this issue, but no result was achieved because Baku hasn’t taken any step forward. But now if there is any chance to implement any program on this direction, that’s positive, but knowing Azerbaijan quite well, we are a little skeptical. However, this doesn’t mean that one should not try”, Davit Babayan said.

Regardless of everything, the Artsakh presidential spokesperson is confident that the only way for maintaining peace and stability is to have strong Armenian army and united society.

On 15 April, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia – Sergey Lavrov, Elmar Mammadyarov, and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan – held a working meeting in Moscow at the initiative of the Russian side. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Andrew Schofer of the United States of America, and Stéphane Visconti of France), as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, joined the meeting. A joint statement was adopted following the meeting. The Foreign Ministers emphasized their interest in the further stabilization of the situation in the conflict zone, in particular during agricultural activities. They also agreed to take measures, on a mutual basis, to allow families to have access to their relatives held in custody in the respective detention centers of the parties. The Ministers expressed their willingness to start concrete work on establishing contacts between people, including through mutual visits of media representatives.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan