04 September 2003, 18:46
Baku accused Yerevan of attempt to relieve itself of responsibility for monitoring failure on contact line
The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense called far-fetched declarations of the Armenian military that Baku was to blame for the incident of August 19 which resulted in the failure of the OSCE monitoring on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijan armed forces.
"We have carried out an inquiry and it has proved the fact that the monitoring was foiled by shots from the Armenian side", reported the press-service of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.
The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense also refuted the report of the general staff commander of the Armenian Armed Forces Mikael Arutyunian that Azerbaijan servicemen had fired several shots from light artillery during the monitoring.
The Defense Ministry's officials said it was a pity that Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk who had participated in the monitoring did not indicate the Armenian side in his report as the initiator of the incident, "although it was evident to all participants of the action". As the Ministry's press-service noted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs already sent their protest against the situation to the OSCE leadership.
Source: Interfax News Agency
