Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian meets with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in New York City (Source: Public Radio of Armenia)

NEW YORK (Public Radio of Armenia)—Upon his arrival in New York yesterday evening, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs Igor Popov, James Warlick and Pierre Andrieu. Anjey Kasprzyk, the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman in office, also attended the meeting.

Nalbandian expressed his indignation to the Co-chairs over the gross violations of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan, which resulted in three civilian deaths yesterday.

“Azerbaijan has developed a bad practice of escalating the situation, even at the expense of human casualties, on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and at the border with Armenia, ahead of important visits to the region and high level meetings, thus undermining the meetings and impeding the negotiation process,” Nalbandian said.

Strongly condemning the killing of three Armenian citizens as a result of ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan, Nalbandian said that, “this [is] yet another provocation by Azerbaijan as a response to the expectation, expressed by the Minsk Group Co-chairs, on holding productive talks between [the] Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers in New York.”

Possible steps to stabilize the situation were discussed at the meeting.

According to Nalbandian, Baku’s actions called into question the reasonability of holding such meetings for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict settlement.

On September 24, Azerbaijan violated the cease-fire agreement on the north-east section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, firing mortars and other weapons across the border. Azerbaijani troops opened fire on border settlements, killing three civilians and wounding three others.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry pledged that it will respond with “equivalent actions.”