European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) Head Markus Ritter today met with mission staffers deployed in the southern town of Goris.

Launched in January 2023, the mission is tasked with monitoring the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and supporting confidence building between the two countries.

EUMA staffers are deployed on the Armenian side of the international border with Azerbaijan. EUMA Headquarters is in Yeghegnadzor, with six Forward Operating Bases in Yeghegnadzor, Jermuk, Martuni, Kapan, Goris and Ijevan. The Mission has a liaison office in Yerevan. 

Ritter and his team also visited Sev Litch (Black Lake), in Armenia’s Syunik province where Azerbaijani forces in May 2021 advanced some 3.5 kilometers into Armenian territory and occupied the nearby heights of Metz Ishkhanasar.

Russia has criticized the EU mission as “counterproductive, arguing it’s an attempt to oust Moscow from the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process.