When the European Union Monitoring Mission in Armenia (EUMA) came to the country, it was able to manage the expectations of the population. Everyone thought that it was a defense force, an EU defense force which came to protect Armenia. But EUMA made it clear that this is not their function. This was stated by the head of EUMA, Markus Ritter, in his address at the Comprehensive Security & Resilience International Conference – 2025 that kicked off Monday in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.

Now people know why EUMA is in Armenia and what it can do. It is an EU monitoring mission working in a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member country where there are Russian troops and there is a conflict with Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan does not want to work together with EUMA. This becomes an occasion for numerous disinformation campaigns against the mission, it’s not always easy to respond to them, but EUMA has found certain mechanisms to respond to that. It’s not EUMA’s style that if one says something bad about it, the latter says something bad about them, Ritter added.

Currently, the disinformation from Azerbaijan has been silent, as they stopped it since May. They still has problems with Russia, but at the moment the situation seems to be good, Ritter said.