Alen Simonyan: "Armenia Hopes to Extend EU Mission on Border with Azerbaijan"

| News, Armenia

At a briefing in the parliament on November 24, Alen Simonyan, the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, stated that Amenia hopes to extend the work of the EU civilian monitoring mission on the border with Azerbaijan. 

"Today, EU observers are often compared with the military, although one has nothing to do with the other. This is a civilian mission that effectively captures violations. I must note that this mission serves as a rather strong deterrent," the chairman of the legislative body said.

In response to the journalists' remark that skirmishes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border continue, despite the presence of European observers, the Speaker pointed out that there was no serious escalation with the start of the work of observers. Simonyan further did not rule out that the violation of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces is aimed precisely at creating the appearance that the mission's activities do not change anything.

Notably, during the CSTO Collective Security Council meeting, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was indignant at the presence of European observers on the Armenian border. "I do not understand, maybe someone will explain why here, besides Russia, which is involved in mediation, there is also the European Union and the OSCE? To further drive a stake in relations between us, between allies? It has always been like this in history. We know what this kind of mediation leads to. They do not need stability and peace in our region, but they need the devastation they manage," the Belarusian leader argued.

Earlier, Caucasus Watch reported that on October 15, the European Council decided to deploy up to 40 EU monitoring experts along the Armenian side on the international border with Azerbaijan to monitor, analyze, and report on the situation in the region. On October 14, an advanced group of European Union observers arrived in Yerevan, Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, reported on his Twitter page.

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