BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 24 (UPI) — European officials arrived Monday to survey a cease-fire along the Azeri border with Armenia following elections in a breakaway region, Azeri officials said.
The Azerbaijan Defense Ministry said a monitoring group from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe arrived Monday in the region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have complained of violations to a 1994 cease-fire agreement related to conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared independence in 1991, lies inside Azerbaijan but has a population that is predominantly ethnic Armenian.
The United States, Russia and France have been trying to mediate the territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia that has resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people.
The last OSCE monitoring May 13 found no cease-fire violations, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reports.
The breakaway region, meanwhile, had elections for its 33-seat Parliament during the weekend.
More than 70 international observers monitored the election.
