Monitoring was held on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces on Oct. 22 according to the mandate by the special envoy of the OSCE chairman. The monitoring near the Gapanli village in Azerbaijan’s Tartar region proceeded without incident on Oct. 22, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported.

The monitoring was held on the Azerbaijani side by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative field assistants Pieter Ki and Irji Aberli. The monitoring was held on the opposite side, which the international community recognizes as Azerbaijani territory, by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk’s field assistants Imre Palatinus, Vladimir Chountulov and Jaslan Nurtazin.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.

The OSCE regularly holds monitoring on troop’s contact line to secure ceasefire.