It also dismissed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s assurances that the Armenian constitution does not contain territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
“We do not see the need for the deployment of any EU mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” said a senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “The activities of this mission must end.”
Baku has been very critical of the EU mission ever since its launch in February 2023. In October this year, a top Azerbaijani general accused it of “escalating the situation in the South Caucasus.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted angrily after Poland’s President Andrzej Duda met with some of the EU monitors and joined them on a border patrol during a visit to Armenia late last month.
Armenian officials have repeatedly praised the work of the monitors. The EU decided late last year to increase their number from 138 to 209. Armenian officials have repeatedly described the mission as a success.
Speaking shortly before Duda’s trip, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian confirmed reports that Baku is demanding the withdrawal of the EU monitors during ongoing negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He said the Armenian side has made a “counterproposal” to remove them from only demarcated border sections.
The mission’s two-year mandate ends in February 2025. It is still not clear whether Yerevan will ask the EU to extend it.
Armenia - European Union monitors patrol Armenia's border with Azerbaijan, February 20, 2023.
Pashinian’s government requested the EU deployment after accusing Russia and ex-Soviet allies of refusing to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani attacks in 2022. Moscow has also opposed the mission, saying that it is part of U.S. and EU efforts to drive Russia out of the South Caucasus.
Earlier in November, an Azerbaijani government-linked pundit said that one of the remaining sticking points in the peace talks is Yerevan’s reluctance to add a clause to the draft treaty banning the presence of third-party monitors or troops on the border. Armenian officials did not explicitly deny that.
On Thursday, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov confirmed his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan’s assertion that the two sides now agree on 15 of the 17 articles of the would-be treaty. He did not shed light on the two sticking points.
Bayramov also reiterated that the signing of the peace deal is conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution. Citing a recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court, Pashinian insisted on Tuesday that the constitution does not contain territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Bayramov countered that the ruling is only “further complicating the situation.”
Mirzoyan and other Armenian officials have said that Azerbaijan may be planning to attack Armenia after hosting the COP29 climate summit in November. Observers in Yerevan believe that the presence of the EU monitors is making it harder for Baku to launch and justify fresh military aggression.