Opinion: Why does Baku oppose EU mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border?
EU mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border
Armenian statements occasionally raise questions about Baku’s protests against the presence of the EU mission in Armenia, which monitors border areas with Azerbaijan, as well as Armenia‘s military support from third countries.
Political analyst Hadji Namazov explained the reasons behind Baku’s stance to the Azerbaijani edition of JAMnews.
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“The statements from the Armenian side and comments from some bloggers emphasize that Armenia is a sovereign state that can invite observers from any country and purchase as many weapons as it deems necessary.
However, from Azerbaijan’s perspective, the situation is far more complex.
Firstly, Azerbaijan views Armenia not just as a neighboring sovereign state but as an occupying country that held a significant portion of its territory under occupation for nearly 30 years. This fact of occupation is now acknowledged even by Armenia’s leadership.
The attitude toward an occupying country cannot be the same as that toward a sovereign state. If we look at the history of how world powers treated occupying states in the post-war period, we see numerous restrictions imposed on such nations that were defeated on the battlefield. The first of these is always a prohibition on rearmament.
But now the times are different, and the world is completely different. The global community practically did not react in any significant way to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories for 30 years, and there were no meaningful sanctions imposed on Armenia. On the contrary, sanctions in the form of the absurd Section 907 Amendment were introduced by the United States against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.
Based on this, Azerbaijan has no choice but to act as an arbitrator itself. After all, there is no point in expecting fair treatment from the modern world. Moreover, Azerbaijan also independently implemented UN resolutions calling for the de-occupation of Karabakh and the surrounding territories without any external assistance.
Therefore, when discussing the armament of Armenia, as well as the presence of representatives of third countries at the border with Azerbaijan, these facts and the just position of official Baku must be taken into account.
As for the effectiveness of the European Union’s mission at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, it was fully demonstrated in February 2024. If you recall, in the Zangilan section of the border, an Azerbaijani border guard was injured as a result of shelling from the Armenian side. The next day, a retaliatory strike by the Azerbaijani army destroyed an Armenian armed forces post, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers.
In other words, the effectiveness of this mission is highly questionable. Azerbaijan is fully capable of adequately responding to all provocations on its state border, and no monitoring mission will hinder this.
Currently, this topic is under discussion within the framework of peace negotiations between Baku and Yerevan, and I am confident that in the near future, there will no longer be any European mission on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.”
EU mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border
