'The line of contact should not remain as an everlasting iron curtain:' Bernard Fassier

The line of contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan should not remain as an “everlasting iron curtain,” OSCE Minsk Group French co-chair Bernard Fassier told journalists in Azerbaijan, as he spoke about the Field Assessment Mission that will visit the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh from October 4 -14.

“The line of contact should not remain as an everlasting iron curtain,” he was quoted by APA as saying.

“After holding official meetings in Baku and Yerevan we will visit Stepanakert on October 7. From there we will determine the following visits of the mission to the regions. If everything is in line with the plan and weather conditions are favorable, we plan to complete our work by October 13. It is difficult to say in advance what the results of this mission will be. This is a very rare and important case. The first visit was paid in February, 2005. First of all we will compare that period and present situation,” he said.

Mr Fassier explained the reason of their crossing to Nagorno Karabakh from the territory of Armenia.

“For the last time we went to Nagorno Karabakh crossing the territory of Azerbaijan. We wanted to demonstrate that despite the difficulty of the process of negotiations, the line of contact should not remain as an everlasting iron curtain. We have not preserved the high tempo we achieved in 2009. I think being mediators we should use all these routes. While going to Karabakh directly from Baku we used the help of the experts. I hope we won’t have to wait for nine more years in order to cross the line of contact and go to Karabakh,” he said.

According to the French diplomat, it is still early to speak about the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents within the framework of OSCE’s Astana summit in December.