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“The monitoring has been conducted in line with the agreed schedule” - the Artsakh Defense ministry generally releases similar statemnets following a regular OSCE monitoring on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. 

What goals do the OSCE monitoring exercises pursue, what results do they record and what measures are being taken? Panorama.am reached the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk for comments on the mentioned and other questions. 

Panorama.am: What is the envisaged frequency of conducting OSCE Mission monitoring of the contact line between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan?

Answer: The Office of the PRCiO undertakes monitoring exercises approximately twice a month.

Panorama.am: What is the task of monitoring in the view of opinions the field operations are largely symbolic in nature?

Answer: Monitoring exercises provide a snapshot of the situation on the ground, and allow the Office of the PRCiO to receive information from the sides. During monitoring exercises, the staff of the Office of the PRCiO receive briefings from the civil, as well as the military authorities. They are also able to discuss issues of interest with local commanders and get an overview of the situation on the front lines during the observation phase. Monitoring exercises are the only confidence-building measure in the military sphere, and the Office of the PRCiO has been conducting these regularly since 1996. They allow a first-hand view of the situation and form a part of the reporting to the OSCE chairmanship, the MG Co-chairs and the MG itself.

Panorama.am: What circumstances are specifically paid attention to during the monitoring - the distance of deployed weapons from settlements to military bases, the movement of the armed forces of the sides, etc.? List, please, all of them.

Answer: The sides raise all of the issues of relevance to them from a military and a civilian perspective. From a civilian perspective, local authorities will raise issues related to how the civilian population suffers as a result of the non-resolution of the conflict. All issues raised by the sides are reported to the OSCE chairmanship and the MG Co-chairs.

Panorama.am: On number of occasions the foreign ministry of the Artsakh Republic informed the Azerbaijani side had refused to ensure the security of the OSCE Mission members. What was your response to those incidents?

Answer: The monitoring exercises of the Office of the PRCIO are carefully prepared and agreed with the sides. They are conducted with the assistance of military escorts to ensure the safety of all participants. In addition, security guarantees are offered in the official response to a request for a monitoring exercise and also by local commanders during the exercise itself. There have been no cases when the sides refused to ensure the security of the staff of the PRCiO.

Panorama.am: Based on the monitoring data, which sections of the contact line are more problematic in terms of most violations occurred?

Answer: All sections of the LOC on different occasions have been subject to ceasefire violations and periods of heightened tension.

Panorama.am: Thank you.