BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 16. EU Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) operates exclusively on Armenian territory, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar said, Trend reports via his Twitter publication.
According to Klaar, there’s a video circulating about an EUMCAP patrol observing the area leading to the Lachin road.
“The patrol was then at a checkpoint about 1,2 km from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” he said.
The EU special representative pointed out that EUMCAP, in line with its mandate, operates exclusively on Armenian territory and did not enter the Lachin road.
Meanwhile, earlier today, the Armenian media spread fake news that representatives of the EU monitoring mission arrived at the Lachin road for the observation purposes.
Previously, following the talks with the Russian peacekeepers' command on December 3 and 7, 2022, a group of experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Property Service under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold CJSC were going to begin preliminary monitoring of the illicit mineral resource exploitation, as well as emerging environmental implications on Azerbaijani lands, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed, on December 10, 2022.
The expert team was expected to inspect the environmental condition at the 'Gizilbulagh' gold deposit and the 'Damirli' copper-molybdenum deposit, monitor various areas, organize cadastral property records, assess potential risks and threats to the environment, as well as to underground and surface water sources.
However, when arriving in the monitoring area, the expert group, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, faced provocations. The planned initial inspection and monitoring did not take place due to the fact that the Russian peacekeepers not only did not create necessary conditions and prevented for the entire process to carry on.