Politics

EUMA again denies Azeri accusations of espionage

3 minute read

EUMA again denies Azeri accusations of espionage

The EU monitoring mission in Armenia (EUMA) has again denied Azeri accusations of espionage.

“Various narratives have circulated during the activities of our mission,” EUMA head of mission Markus Ritter said at a meeting with delegates of an Armenian-Georgian forum in Ijevan.

 “Azerbaijan refuses to cooperate with us, and even demands that we leave, it considers the monitoring mission to be a spy network engaged in intelligence activities, whereas all of this is untrue, we are not a secret service, our only goal is to prevent tension in the South Caucasus and help Armenia to have better positions in the negotiations process, which proceeds more effectively when there are no gunshots,” Ritter said.

He said the “border incidents” have decreased significantly since EUMA started its operations.

“Ever since the launch of our mission, the number of border incidents has significantly decreased, the tension decreased significantly, sometimes sporadic gunshots are heard but fortunately there’ve been no victims. For example, two years ago, the foreign ministry of Armenia asked us to conduct monitoring near the village of Khachik, because there were reports that the Azerbaijani military was firing in the direction of villagers from Nakhchivan, disrupting agricultural work, but when we started to conduct monitoring there on visible distance, the gunshots stopped. There is already a perception in Armenia’s neighboring countries that the EU monitoring mission in Armenia has become a factor of stability,” he said.

Ritter said the mission is conducting comprehensive monitoring along the border and sending reports to Brussels for political decision-makers. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan have access to these reports, he said.

Ritter praised Armenians for the attitude and hospitality towards EUMA. 

He said the mission is free to travel anywhere across the country without any restrictions on reaching border towns.

EUMA was launched in 2023 at the request of Armenia following Azeri incursions. The civilian mission observes and reports on the security situation along the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan. In January 2025 the EU extended the mandate of the EUMA for a further two years. 

Over the years Azerbaijan has made unfounded accusations that EUMA is engaged in intelligence gathering. This has been numerously denied by the EU mission.

 

 

 

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