Azerbaijani leader slams EU border observers, saying they act ‘as if they are defending Armenia from us’

Azerbaijan’s president on Sunday criticized EU observers stationed along the border with Armenia, saying they act “as if they are defending Armenia from us.”

According to the presidential press service, Ilham Aliyev said that there is “no need” to defend Armenia from Azerbaijan, underlining that “we achieved what we wanted” in border conflicts from several years ago.

“I said back then that if we fired a single shot … not a trace of them would remain. But they act as if they are defending Armenia from us,” he said during a meeting with families in Zangilan in the Karabakh region, which in 2020-2023 was liberated from nearly three decades of Armenian occupation.

He underlined that Baku “has no intention of destroying Armenia or depriving it of its independence.”

“Presenting themselves as false heroes at this event in Armenia — saying that they ‘stopped Azerbaijan, otherwise this aggressive Azerbaijan would have destroyed Armenia’ — is all nonsense. We have never had, do not have, and will not have such intentions unless further provocations are committed,” he said.

Aliyev also warned against what he described as anti-Azerbaijani forces within Armenia’s political sphere, saying renewed provocations could destabilize the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of cross-border wars since the late 1980s, including most recently in 2023, when Baku liberated its territory of Karabakh.

In January 2023, the Council of the EU was established to secure the border areas of Armenia and “ensure an environment conducive to normalization efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan supported by the EU.”