Monday, April 10 2023 19:00

ArmInfo.The European Union shares with Azerbaijan all relevant information on patrols along the Armenian border, POLITICO reports.

Thus according to the article published on the official website of  POLITICO, it is noted that: "Gas and oil from Azerbaijan are crucial  to the EU's effort to replace Russian fossil fuels - but that's in  danger of becoming entangled in the bloc's bid to become a power  player in the war-torn South Caucasus."

The source reminds that the EU has sent a civilian mission to help  police the Armenian side of the tense mountainous border between the  two countries, which has Azerbaijan warning of foreign interference  in its affairs.  "At the same time, a European Parliament report  condemning Azerbaijan's human rights record is sparking howls of  outrage from the country," they note.  "All of that is casting a  shadow over the EU's high-profile deal with Azerbaijan to double its  annual gas deliveries to the bloc to 20 billion cubic meters by  2027," the source stresses.

"Speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, a senior official in  the EU's diplomatic service bemoaned the fact that the monitoring  mission seems to have soured relations. "We were hoping for a  different scenario with Baku. We are sharing all relevant information  on patrols and so on with Azerbaijan because we don't want any  issues." With Russia distracted by its catastrophic war against  Ukraine, Brussels hoped to boost its presence in the South Caucasus,  building economic ties with Azerbaijan while offering political  support to neighboring Armenia in an effort to keep a balance between  the two rival states.  But that's not the way the 100 monitors -  announced by Brussels in January after a two-day war last September -  are being seen by Baku.  In a speech last month, Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev blasted outside interference in his country's  standoff with Armenia over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.  "The mediators involved in the Karabakh conflict [try] not to solve  the issue but to freeze it," he declared, arguing Baku rejected  efforts to "tire us out with meaningless negotiations." In 2020,  Aliyev launched a successful military offensive retaking swathes of  Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Azerbaijan's  internationally recognized borders but controled since the fall of  the USSR by its ethnic Armenian population. That conflict ended with  a Russian-brokered ceasefire, but tensions are rising and there's  fear of a return to full-blown fighting.

"Many Armenians believe there'll be a spring offensive by  Azerbaijan," Markus Ritter, head of the EU mission, told Deutsche  Welle. "If this doesn't happen, our mission is already a success."  Days before, the country's state media alleged the EU mission is  actually helping "provoke Azerbaijan into a new war," leaving the "EU  to bear the blame" for any new conflict.  "Azerbaijan and Russia are  basically saying the same thing - that the EU mission is a  military-intelligence operation under the cover of monitoring," the  EU official added. "They've been trying to discredit the mission,  which is exclusively civilian and unarmed, from the beginning and  there's not much we can do about it.  Vaqif Sad?qov, the head of  Azerbaijan's mission to the EU, told POLITICO that the presence of  the monitors near the border with Azerbaijan is worrying Baku.  "This  is a bilateral issue between Armenia and the EU, but it is happening  a few hundred meters from our own border posts and in a heavily  militarized environment where we have Russian border guards, Armenian  border guards, Russian regular units, Armenian regular units and,  closer to the Iranian border, Iran's military. Now we also have EU  peacekeepers. So we have legitimate security questions," he said.   Sad?qov warned the mission could be seen as an effort by Brussels to  bolster its presence in the region," the article reads.

On January 23 this year, the Council of the EU has agreed to form a   new European Union civilian mission in Armenia (EUMA) within the   framework of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). As stated   in the EU message, the aim of the Mission is to promote stability in   the border areas of Armenia, build confidence on the ground and  provide an environment conducive to EU-supported efforts to normalize   relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  The EU civil mission in   Armenia includes up to 100 specialists. More than 8 million euros   have been allocated for the first four months of the Mission's work.   EUMA's initial mandate will be for two years and its operational   headquarters will be located in Armenia. The Civil Operations   Commander will be Stefano Tomat, Managing Director of the EEAS Civil   Planning and Conduct (CPCC) Division.  The European Union deployed a   new civilian mission to monitor the situation on the   Armenian-Azerbaijani border on 20 February. It included 8 French   gendarmes and 15 policemen from Germany. The headquarters of the   mission is located in Yeghegnadzor.