By Eva Sahakyan

YEREVAN, July 1–On June 29-30 violations of the ceasefire agreement were registered near the Karabakh-Azerbaijani contact line.

The press service of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Defense Army informed that using various firearms and sniper rifles the enemy fired at the strong points of the Karabakh position in the direction of Mehdili, Karvend, Marzili, Shkhlar and Seysulan.

According to the report after the retaliatory actions of the army the enemy was silenced.

On June 18 in the evening an Azerbaijani armed group entered Nagorno Karabakh territory. As a result of the fighting the enemy was hurled back. Four Armenian soldiers died and another four were injured. The Azerbaijani side left one dead on the ground.

While the Azeri ceasefire violations continue, Baku finds the joint statement made by the US, French and Russian presidents given last weekend to be acceptable and deems it necessary to resolve the Nagorno Karabagh issue through diplomatic channels.

The statement was highly appreciated by the Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mamedyarov. “Occupation is occupation and everyone admits that. If we want to achieve peace in the region, we must build it according to the standards of international law,” Mamedyarov said on Tuesday during his meeting with Bundestag deputies in Berlin.

“Azerbaijan gave its principled agreement on the updated variant of the Madrid principles, suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group mediators. The main points of the document are: liberation of five of the seven occupied regions, the other two will be liberated five years later; deblocking of communication lines existing in the region; opening of the Turkey-Armenia border; implementation of restorative activities; the return of refugees to their residences; deployment of peacekeeping forces to ensure the safety of the population; and providing Nagorno Karabakh an interim status with broad autonomy. Only after the implementation of all these, after the establishment of confidence between the two parties, will it be possible to discuss the problem of the final status of Karabakh in a peaceful atmosphere,” he said.

“My optimism in the settlement of the conflict will grow if we understand what Armenians want. If they want to have Karabakh by force, it is impossible. If they continue insisting on the independence of that region, this also seems impossible to me,” he said.

Yerevan Report