Occupied Gori, August 2008
Photographs © Onnik James Krikorian 2008
LATEST BLOG POSTS
EU Monitoring Capacity deploys on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border
The European Union has deployed around 40 unarmed civilian monitors on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan following serious military escalation on 12-13 September, that saw the latter strike and capture territory within the former, leaving nearly 300 dead on both sides. Though requested in September by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, the decision to deploy the monitors came on 6 October at the meeting in Prague between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, European Council President Charles Michel, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Meet in Washington D.C. for Bilateral Talks – and also with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken
For many, the significance of yesterday’s bilateral meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, appears to have been overlooked. Instead, all attention was focused on the later meeting of the two state officials with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Though important, the preparation of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan has actually been assigned to the Foreign Ministers in a bilateral format and not to one with the direct involvement of any external actors.
EU Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) starts patrolling the Armenian Border with Azerbaijan
Following the arrival of a technical assessment team to Armenia, a monitoring mission from the European Union today started patrolling the country’s border with Azerbaijan. The decision to deploy the 40 or so civilian monitors has been widely welcomed and applauded but it is important to realise what it is and what it isn’t. To begin with, or for now at least, it is not an indefinite presence in Armenia with a fixed term of just two months. That might seem short to many, but it’s also important to realise why.