The EU’s mission is a useful tool in terms of stability in the South Caucasus. Ride

The head of the mission stated that since February 2023, the border incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan have significantly decreased significantly since the first day of the mission.

“The people feel safer and safe. This is a fact, and this is part of our work, “said Ritter.

Baku has repeatedly complained that the deployment of observers in Armenia aggravates the situation in the South Caucasus, hinders the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, even accuses the mission “espionage.” President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev called the activities of European observers “telescope diplomacy.” The EU’s mission has categorically denied all the accusations.

Touching upon Baku’s accusations, the head of the mission, in particular, noted that they are considering both sides, as they want to report to Brussels what is happening.

“We are always open to patrol. We never hide somewhere or hide. It is very easy for the Azerbaijani side to notice us to see where we are. It’s good if they see we’re there. Even the patrols we go with escorts, we are notifying Baku through the Special Representative’s Office a week ago. This means that they even know where we are going and where we appear. It is very, very open and transparent, and we don’t work any reconnaissance, “said Ruten.

Azerbaijan demands observers remove the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. This is one of the unobserved to the peace agreement. In response, the Prime Minister offered Baku to remove EU observers from the demarcated sections. At the end of January, the Speaker of the National Assembly Alain Simonyan did not rule out that there should be no observation mission in the drafted parts.

“If the Armenian government and the Azerbaijani side agree that we should not patrol in directly clearly demarcated border areas, we do not see a problem in it,” Marcus Ritter told Armenpress.

The head of the mission noted that today the situation on the border is quite calm, there are no incidents at the moment.

“But what we also see and report is that both sides strengthen their positions. Thus, both sides continue to prepare for worse development, it is obvious. But we don’t see tension at the moment, and this is since the month, so we are quite sure that the region is on a good path, “said the mission.