Will a Civilian Mission Come from Europe to Armenia?

Today, it is expected that the ambassadors of EU member states will discuss and make a decision in Brussels regarding a civilian mission to be sent to Armenia, which is intended to be deployed along the border with Azerbaijan to strengthen confidence and promote delimitation. This was announced on October 10 by Toivo Klaar, the EU special representative for the South Caucasus, at a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Security and Defense, as reported by "Azatutyun."

“The decision to send a mission still needs to be accepted by member states in the Political and Security Committee. The full support of member states as well as the European Parliament is extremely important for implementing the EU’s peacekeeping efforts,” he stated.

An agreement to send a civilian mission to Armenia was reached last week in Prague, following prolonged negotiations among the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, and the European Council. According to a quadrilateral statement, Armenia has agreed to deploy the EU civilian mission along the border with Azerbaijan. Baku, which previously rejected a proposal to station European armed forces on-site, promised to cooperate with the unarmed mission “to the extent that it concerns it.”

It has been reported that the unarmed mission is expected to start its operations in the coming weeks, for a maximum period of two months, to support trust between the sides and assist border commissions with reports. It is unclear which countries will provide the civilian observers.

“At this time, based on available information, the mission will likely consist of 40 people,” Brussels diplomatic sources told the media, without providing additional details. Diplomats do not rule out that European observers might come to Armenia from Georgia, where the Union has had a civilian mission deployed since 2008, following the short war in August between Russia and Georgia.