Following numerous border incidents that resulted in hostilities between the two neighbors, the European Council resolved on Monday to send up to 40 monitoring experts to the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan to keep an eye on the situation, Daily Sabah reported.
The decision is intended to “facilitate the restoration of peace and security in the area, the development of confidence, and the delimitation of the international border between the two states,” the European Union highlighted in a written statement.
The border monitoring mission between Azerbaijan and Armenia won’t continue longer than two months.
The choice was made in response to deadly fighting along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September, which stoked concerns about the possibility of a new, all-out war. The bloodiest fighting since 2020, when roiling tensions descended into all-out war, occurred this month, with at least 286 fatalities on both sides before a truce brokered by the United States put a halt to the fighting.
Following a meeting on October 6 between French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinian, the EU decided to dispatch the mission. The peace process with Armenia “has now been advanced,” Aliyev told reporters from his nation after the meeting.
Since the Armenian military unlawfully invaded Karabakh, an area that is acknowledged by the world community as belonging to Azerbaijan, as well as seven surrounding regions, in 1991, relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been hostile.
On September 27, 2020, fighting broke out, with the Armenian Army targeting both Azerbaijani military and civilians, in violation of several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.