Azerbaijani army positions come under fire soon after EU mission deployed in Armenia: provocation or coincidence?
Positions of the Azerbaijani Army, deployed in the western district of Tovuz, and in Nakhchivan's Sadarak District, came under fire for 15 times by units of the Armenian armed forces, starting from 20:45 on February 21 to 01:20 on February 22, Azernews reports, referring to the information of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
In addition to the incident on the state border, members of the illegal Armenian armed groups in the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily stationed, fired at the positions of the Azerbaijan army located in the directions of Tazakand settlement of Kalbajar District, Shusha, and Khojavand District.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that retaliatory measures were taken to silence the enemy.
What is intriguing at this point is not the shelling of Azerbaijani positions but the fact that is timed more or less to the moment of deployment of the EU mission along the Armenian border with Azerbaijan. On February 20, the mission of the European Union began to operate in Armenia, and just one day later, the separatist Armenian forces inside Karabakh under the Russian peacekeepers' temporary control zone and outside the Azerbaijani border, from Armenia, in sync fired at the Azerbaijani positions. Undoubtedly, the move can only be ascribed to provocations Armenians in and out are hatching to discredit Azerbaijan and compel the EU observation mission to report to their bosses about Azerbaijan's alleged violations.
However, the Azerbaijani side has repeatedly stated that the arrival of the EU mission will not stabilize the situation in the region, but will intensify it. This was once again confirmed by the fact that Armenian armed units opened fire on our positions only a day after the mission began.
Apparently, Armenians consider the presence of European observers in the region as a "security umbrella" for themselves and are "emboldened". However, for Azerbaijan, it doesn't matter what country or mission the Armenian armed groups are hiding behind - if the provocation and threats continue, they will be severely retaliated against!
Although the EU calls its mission a "civilian mission", it admitted for the first time in a statement released on the day of its launch that 50 of the 100 people participating in the mission are "unarmed observers". This means that half of the mission consists of armed men. This fact was unexpected even for the Armenian public. Until now, the Armenian leadership has hidden the fact from its own public that the EU's armed mission was sent to the country's territory.
Meanwhile, it is strange that Iran still welcomes the arrival of an armed EU mission to its border with silence. At the same time, although Russia does not hide its negative attitude towards the placement of the EU mission in Armenia, it clearly does not take effective measures against attempts to push it out of the region.
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