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Special report. Factor TV joined EU Mission in Armenia at the border with Nakhchivan: VIDEO
POLITICS
06.02.2024 | 18:00
Despite weather conditions and impassable roads, every day the European Union Civilian Mission sets out from operational bases located throughout Armenia to monitor the security situation along the entire border.
The EU Mission is an unarmed, civilian mission whose objective, according to official Brussels, is to monitor and report on the security situation, to ensure an environment conducive to the normalisation efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan supported by the EU.
The composition of the Mission, which started on February 20 last year, will expand from 138 to 209 by September.
The filming crew of Factor TV spent a day with the EU observers’ patrol group, participating in a tour led by the head of the Mission, Markus Ritter, in the Khachik village area near Nakhchivan.
“Our task is to calm down the tensions by our presence. We are the most visible part of the European Union because in this area, with these weather conditions, nobody else is going. People see us, see the European flag, and they have the feeling that there’s somebody from the international community, and that’s appreciated by the people,” the head of the Mission says in a conversation with Factor TV.
EU civilian observers carry out an average of 3-4 patrols per day, observing about 3800 km per week. EU observers conducted more than 1500 patrols in 1 year.
“We are on duty 24/7. If there is a special need to go somewhere, we can also go at night. At the end of August and beginning of September, there were allegations from the Azerbaijani side that Armenia is reinforcing troops alongside the border near Goris and they are trying to start something. So, we were there patrolling also at night, and we were tweeting, reporting that everything is calm. So, we show the flag, we calm down the situation,” Markus Ritter tells Factor TV.
Watch the interview with Markus Ritter discussing the EU observation mission’s activities, interactions with Russian border guards, the notable incident last August, the risks of rising tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the near future, and the details of the tour in Factor TV‘s special report.
