Parliament condemns the attack on Nagorno-Karabakh

The original version was published here.

Today, Members of the European Parliament will adopt a resolution on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the resolution, the MEPs strongly condemn the new offensive by autocratic Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh province.

Markéta Gregorová, Pirate Party MEP and Greens/EFA member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, comments:

“While European diplomacy dithers over the attitude to adopt towards Baku, the European Parliament has firmly condemned Azerbaijan’s aggression against this province, while calling for a review of the EU’s relations with this country.

“After Russian aggression against Ukraine certain Member States dependence on Azerbaijani gas has increased. This must not make us forget that Ilham Aliyev is a dictator and that he is responsible for ethnic cleansing targeting the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. We urgently need to reduce our energy dependence, and we call on the Commission to reconsider the ‘strategic partnership’ with Azerbaijan in the energy field.

“The EU needs to increase its support of Armenia, as it faces a humanitarian crisis due to the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees and growing security concerns. At the same time, Armenia continues its pursuit of democratic reforms.

“Finally, the resolution makes a stark assessment of the ineffectiveness of decades of diplomacy, which have failed to prevent Azerbaijan’s military actions and human suffering. We therefore call for a new diplomatic and security architecture in the region. The EU urgently needs to address its lack of a holistic foreign policy in the region, which should focus on promoting human rights, international law and democratic values.”