The European Council on Monday decided to deploy up to 40 monitoring experts along the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan to observe the situation after dozens of border incidents led to conflict between the two neighbors.
The European Union in a written statement underlined that the decision is aimed at "facilitating the restoration of peace and security in the area, the building of confidence and the delimitation of the international border between the two states."
"In order to ensure a swift deployment of the EU monitoring capacity, it was decided that the monitoring experts will be temporarily deployed from the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia)," it added, saying that the monitoring capacity in Georgia would however not be affected.
The monitoring mission along the Azerbaijan-Armenia border will not last more than two months.
The decision comes after deadly clashes in September along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border that have raised fears of a fresh all-out conflict. Last month, at least 286 people were killed on both sides before a U.S.-brokered truce ended the worst clashes since 2020, when simmering tensions escalated into all-out war.
The EU decision to send the mission follows an Oct. 6 meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Following the meeting, Aliyev told reporters from his country that the peace process with Armenia "has now been accelerated."
"Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and the Alma Ata 1991 Declaration through which both recognise each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty," the European Council said in a statement earlier this month.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces, violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.
The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.
However, the cease-fire has been broken several times since then.
After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.
In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian forces in what Baku calls "The Great Return." The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate the recaptured lands.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday said that: "Any positive step in Azerbaijan-Armenia relations will inevitably positively reflect in Ankara's relations with Yerevan."
In 2021, Ankara and Yerevan mutually appointed special representatives to normalize ties.
In January, Türkiye and Armenia held the first round of talks in more than 10 years, describing them as "positive and constructive" and raising the prospect of restoring ties and reopening borders. Most recently, the two countries decided to host future talks on their own soil, rather than in third countries, as was done previously.
Despite Türkiye being one of the first countries to recognize Armenia's independence in 1991, the two countries have been divided on a range of issues, including Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the events of 1915 during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, and the border closure between the two neighboring countries since 1993.