EU sees commitment from Yerevan, Baku to overcoming conflict

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union believes Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are committed to overcoming the conflict between the two countries, European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar said in an interview with APA on Wednesday, March 8.

This “is a normalization process at the end of a conflict that has lasted for thirty years. And I think it would be surprising if only two years after the latest big-scale war we would have everything being normal between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This takes time,” Klaar said.

“The important thing is that there is political will from the leaderships in Yerevan and in Baku to overcome this history of conflict and we believe that there is this commitment by President Aliyev and there is also a commitment by Prime Minister Pashinyan. But again, it takes time, it is not easy.”

Klaar also weighed in on the EU mission deployed to Armenia in February.

“We have not agreed on this with the Azerbaijani authorities because it is after all on the territory of Armenia but we have been absolutely transparent about what it is that we are doing, what the purpose of this mission is, and about the activities of the mission. We see the purpose of the mission as building confidence both regarding the situation on the Armenian - Azerbaijani border, but also in the Armenian communities along the international border and as contributing to the peace process,” the .

“That is a very important element because in our view the role of the mission is to support the peace process, it is not an alternative, it is certainly not a substitute. It is something that in our view needs to serve as an accelerator of the peace process and to also help the Armenians who are feeling somewhat insecure, to more actively engage in the peace process, and to work towards good outcomes.”

In February, the European Union launched a civilian mission in Armenia, which is tasked to promote settlement of the situation with Azerbaijan. The mission’s two-year mandate envisages patrolling and reporting about the situation to Brussels to raise its awareness of the situation on the ground. According to experts in Brussels, the mission is ultimately geared to enhance the European Union’s influence in the South Caucasus amid its confrontation with Russia.