Armenia Condemns Azerbaijani Cease-Fire Violations

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (center-right) meets with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Yerevan on December 16.

Yerevan has accused Baku of serious cease-fire violations along the border with Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, including one on December 14 in which a 26-year-old Armenian officer was reportedly killed in a shoot-out.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian told visiting Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs in Yerevan on December 16 that the incidents hindered the process of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France, James Warlick of the United States, and the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson in office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, are in Yerevan to discuss the next steps in resolving the so-called "frozen conflict."

On December 15, they discussed the issue with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku. No details were released.

Armenian-backed separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a war that killed 30,000 people in the 1990s.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax