Moscow and Baku on Tuesday criticized the deployment of a European Union observation mission on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus in conflict for more than thirty years around the territory. disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
“
The EU is openly abusing its relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan
,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference in Baku with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Djeyhoun Bairamov.
The deployment of this mission "
raises doubts about its legitimacy, functions, mandate and duration
", he added.
High escalation risk
For his part, Djeyhun Bairamov asserted that “
Armenia's position at the normalization talks with Baku has become more destructive after the establishment of the EU mission
”.
The European Union announced last week that it had deployed a two-year civilian observation mission, 100 strong, on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan, at the request of Yerevan.
Armenia recently accused Baku of wanting to carry out “
ethnic cleansing
” in Nagorno-Karabakh by forcing the Armenians living there to leave this territory.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been confronted since mid-December with the blocking - by Azerbaijani activists posing as environmental defenders - of a vital axis for its supply.
The risk of an escalation remains high in this predominantly Armenian-populated Azerbaijani enclave, despite recent progress in peace talks between Baku and Yerevan and increased Western efforts for a peaceful settlement in the region that Russia regards as its traditional area of influence.
Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed in the early 1990s when the USSR broke up for control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
This first conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives, ended in an Armenian victory.
But Azerbaijan took its revenge in the fall of 2020 during a second war, which left 6,500 dead and allowed it to retake many territories.