Relations between the European Union and one of its most important oil and gas exporters are on the rocks, with a war of words igniting just weeks before Western leaders fly to Azerbaijan for all-important climate change negotiations, POLITICO writes.
In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, European Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said the United Nations-led COP29 talks in Baku next month must be “an opportunity for the Azerbaijani authorities to demonstrate the commitment to their international human rights obligations.”
Schmit called for the release of several political prisoners, including Gubad Ibadoghlu, who was nominated for the Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for his activism, and Bahruz Samadov, a peace activist facing treason charges. Others in the debate said Baku should free Armenian leaders captured during a war over Artsakh last year.
A number of MEPs went even further, calling for the EU to ax a deal with Azerbaijan to more than double natural gas purchases.
The agreement fuels human rights abuses and allows Russia to launder its fossil fuels through Azerbaijan, centrist French MEP Nathalie Loiseau alleged.
Azerbaijan’s foreign policy chief, Hikmet Hajiyev, told POLITICO: “Some of the discussions at the European Parliament reminds us of a theater of the absurd or a circus. The world has seen the shameful practice of corruption at this institution. Many of those loud speakers against my country are on the payroll of the Armenian lobby and the Armenian government’s PR and lobbying campaign,” he claimed without evidence, advising the EU human rights commissioner to deal seriously with growing human rights problems in the EU “instead of preaching to others.” Hajiyev also addressed the calls for the release of Armenian POWs, asserting that “calls for releasing Armenian war criminals who killed innocent Azerbaijani civilians are equal to releasing Nazi war criminals.”
