The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a decision calling for sanctions in opposition to Azerbaijan’s political and navy management, citing the “ethnic cleaning” of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh.
Adopted with 491 votes in favor and solely 9 in opposition to, the decision known as for the EU and its member states to “undertake focused sanctions in opposition to the people within the Azerbaijani Authorities” answerable for human rights violations in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanded investigations into “the abuses dedicated by Azerbaijani forces that would represent battle crimes.”
The decision additionally expressed solidarity with the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh “who’ve been pressured to flee their houses and ancestral lands” and “considers that the present scenario quantities to ethnic cleaning.”
Azerbaijan’s last-month lightning navy operation within the disputed area was described as “a pre-planned, unjustified navy assault… resulting in important lack of life,” which represented “a gross violation of human rights and worldwide legislation, and a transparent infringement of the trilateral ceasefire assertion of 9 November 2020.”
The MEPs demanded that the EU droop all imports of oil and gasoline from Azerbaijan “within the occasion of navy aggression in opposition to Armenian territorial integrity” or “assaults in opposition to Armenia’s constitutional order and democratic establishments.”
The decision additionally known as for the EU to reassess its vitality partnership with Baku. Final yr, the bloc signed an settlement to double pure gasoline imports from Azerbaijan by 2027, to make up for the shortages brought on by the Western embargo in opposition to Russia.
Throughout the debate on the decision earlier this week, Fabio Massimo Castaldo of Italy’s 5Star Motion denounced the EU’s “silence, which sacrificed the Armenian inhabitants within the identify of realpolitik,” whereas the top of France’s Nationwide Rally, Jordan Bardella, argued that the EU “prefers gasoline to Armenian blood.”
Greater than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh for the reason that native militia surrendered to Azeri troops on September 20, after a day of combating. Azerbaijan has pointed to Armenia explicitly recognizing the previous breakaway area as sovereign Azeri territory on a number of events, together with final October’s talks in Prague hosted by the EU.
Baku described its offensive as a “counterterrorism” motion in opposition to what it stated have been unlawful armed teams. The self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was not acknowledged by any nation, together with Armenia.
The EU had scheduled peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan for Thursday, within the Spanish metropolis of Granada. The federal government in Baku canceled its participation on Wednesday, nevertheless, saying that the absence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would lead to an “anti-Azerbaijani environment.”
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