Armenia hopes to receive military aid from the European Union

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, citing Armenian media, Nikol During his visit to Denmark on May 14, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan said: Armenia still hopes to receive military aid from the European Union. We are currently waiting for the European Union’s decision to include Armenia in the European Peace Fund.

Pashinyan participated in the Copenhagen Democracy Summit negotiations held in Denmark.

After months of discussions, the European Union was forced to approve the decision to provide “non-lethal” weapons to Armenia from the European Peace Fund at the beginning of this year.

The European Peace Fund is a special fund that helps strengthen the defense capabilities of the European Union’s partners.

In the draft of the relevant document of this fund, it was stipulated that 10 million in the next two and a half years Euro military aid to be provided to Armenia.

The document stated that a battalion-sized mobile field camp was to be established in Armenia. This camp will have treatment departments and other related departments.

Hungarian Opposition

According to this news, in order to allocate such military aid to any partner country, the consent of all EU member states is necessary.

At that time A European diplomatic source announced that Hungary is against this initiative. Budapest demanded the same amount of assistance to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan visited Budapest last week.

However, the Hungarian authorities did not say anything about the European Peace Fund aid to Yerevan in the official information about his talks with the Hungarian leaders. Peter Sijarto, held on May 6, did not mention this issue.

Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan himself did not explain whether Yerevan had tried to get the Hungarian government to agree to lift the aid block or not. .

Instead, he spoke again about the “branching” of Armenia’s foreign policy and the importance of the monitoring mission deployed by the European Union on the border of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to Pashinyan, this is the first time that the European Union participates in the security agenda of Armenia in a sense.

Armenia requested assistance from the European Peace Fund in 2023 . Last October, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonnade said she had personally spoken with the EU’s High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security about Armenia’s request. And the security of the European Union announced: the issue of aid to Armenia is under consideration, but the agreement of all member states is needed to make a decision.

Moscow’s displeasure

Russia has always been dissatisfied with the deployment of the European Union monitoring mission in Armenia and has said that this is one of the West’s attempts to push Russia out. It is from the South Caucasus.

Moscow accuses Yerevan of distancing itself from the Collective Security Treaty Organization and does not trust it in security matters.

Armenia’s relations with Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization were strained, especially after it announced in September 2022 that it had been attacked by the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Despite Yerevan’s demands, Neither the Collective Security Treaty Organization nor Russia have yet condemned Azerbaijan’s attack on Armenia as an allied country and have not confirmed Azerbaijan’s claim of occupying Armenian lands.

Pashinyan clarified that Armenia’s membership In the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty, it is practically blocked and if the allies do not change their position, it is also possible to block it legally.

European Peace Fund

The European Peace Fund in 2021 aims to provide non-lethal weapons to preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen security

So far the fund has helped Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.

All these countries have candidate status. are members of the European Union.

It should be noted that the candidate status of the European Union is not required to receive aid from the European Peace Fund. The fund has also helped several other countries, including Congo, Benin and Ghana.

What is a non-lethal weapon?

Non-lethal weapons should not cause death or serious injury to the enemy in normal use.

The main purpose of using Such weapons are neutralization, not destruction of the enemy.

When using these weapons, minimal damage to the target’s health is necessary.

However. Such weapons, which are referred to as “humanitarian weapons” in the media, can also be used to shoot down military equipment and weapons such as drones and stop traffic.

It should be noted that in the early 1990s, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict caused a conflict between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding regions were occupied.

But in 2020, as a result of the 44-day war, Baku regained control of those 7 regions and a part of Karabakh, and a force Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the region.

Baku announced a “local anti-terrorist operation” in Karabakh on September 19-20, 2023.

Yervan assessed this action as “ethnic cleansing”. Later, the migration of the Armenian population from Karabakh to Armenia began.

Although separate negotiations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been conducted with the mediation of the European Union and Russia, the peace agreement has not yet been signed.

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