Civilnet
EU Extends Armenia Monitoring Mission for Two More Years. The European Union’s monitoring mission in Armenia has been extended for another two years, its mandate unchanged, as approved yesterday by the ambassadors of the EU member countries.
This decision still needs to be confirmed by foreign ministers of those countries, but this is only a formal step, the EU mission explained. “EUMA will stay committed to security in the region,” the mission’s head Markus Ritter said today.
This non-executive and unarmed civilian mission was deployed to Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan in February 2023, several months after Baku launched an invasion into Armenian territory. It monitors and reports on the situation on the border from the Armenian side only, as an offer to also operate on the Azerbaijani side was flatly rejected.
The mission’s presence has since triggered outrage in Baku, with President Ilham Aliyev and other senior officials denouncing it as a hostile move and repeatedly demanding its removal, even making it one of the preconditions for signing a normalization deal with Yerevan, and threatening it with gunfire. Russia has also criticized the mission, claiming that the EU is using it to spy on Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, as well as Russian forces present on some sections of the border, and to gather intelligence on military infrastructure.
Last October, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that the mission has been crucial in preventing Azerbaijan from escalating the border crisis. “Since its deployment there hasn’t been any major escalation. It works, it really works and we highly appreciate this effort of the European Union,” he said.
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