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“We are very concerned by the loss of life that the violation of the cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan has caused,” said the PACE monitoring co-rapporteur for Armenia, Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC), and the co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan, Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC) and Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom, EC/DA), in a joint statement.

“We remind both countries that facilitating peace is a commitment they took on when they became members of the Council of Europe. We therefore urge them to show the restraint needed on the ground to de-escalate the situation and to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric,” they added.

“We also call on both countries to resume peace talks in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, in the manner indicated by its co-Chairs in their statement of 15 July: creating an atmosphere conducive to the peace process, holding negotiations on a settlement for Nagorno-Karabakh, and allowing the return of OSCE monitors to the region,” they concluded.