Presidential aide calls for halting EU mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev has called for stopping the activities of the European Union mission on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

He stated that the Azerbaijani side sees no need for the involvement of a third party in the demarcation process, which is taking place in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and peace, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

"We see no need for the deployment of any European Union mission on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The activities of this mission should be concluded. The deployment of the mission was agreed upon in Prague with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as Charles Michel and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. It was planned that this mission would be short-term. However, we see that this mission is becoming permanent, and its composition, as well as the territory covered by its mandate, is expanding," he said.

Hajiyev went on to say that there is no necessity for the involvement of a third party in the demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is taking place in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and peace.

“We do not consider the EU mission to be a factor contributing to peace in the region. On the contrary, it is a factor that causes concern," he added.

It is essential to note that the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) makes no positive contribution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement process and is ineffective in preventing incidents. On the contrary, EU representatives are engaged in various provocations, intelligence activities and propaganda. Not surprisingly, this provokes outright rejection by the regional countries.

As an example of such provocations, Caliber.Az has recently obtained video footage spotting European spies opposite Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district in two off-road vehicles. They were observed using binoculars to surveil the villages of Kheyrimli and Mazam, which proves that the EU mission continues to collect and share intelligence with the Armenian military, thereby encouraging Armenia toward new provocations.

With such actions, the European Union continues to show that it is not genuinely interested in achieving peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

On October 7, 2022, the Council of Europe decided to send up to 40 EU experts along the Armenian side of the conditional border with Azerbaijan “with the objective of monitoring, analysing and reporting on the situation in the region.” The mission was set for two months, and on December 19, it was announced that the group's activities had concluded.

In January 2023, according to information from the European Council portal, an agreement was reached to send a new civilian monitoring mission to Armenia aimed at “building confidence on the ground, and ensuring an environment conducive to normalisation efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan supported by the EU.” It was noted that the mission was agreed “in response to Armenia’s request,” and the duration of patrolling the territory along the internationally recognized border of Armenia was suddenly extended to two years. Additionally, the number of personnel in the group increased to over 200.

By Khagan Isayev