The European Parliament’s second largest political group, the Socialists and Democrats, on Friday called for Azerbaijan to be “immediately expelled” from the body’s Eastern Partnership Program.
The call to expel Azerbaijan was made in a statement by the group denouncing the developments in Belarus, also an EPP member, following elections in the country, where long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko is tightening the grip on the country’s opposition forces following a disputed election there this week.
Drawing parallels between the elections in Belarus this month and ones held in Azerbaijan six months ago, the Vice President of the Socialists and Democrats, European Parliament member Kati Piri said: “We cannot be in partnership with countries where we witness the violent repression of political opposition and civil society. Dictators are the enemies of free societies. Both Belarus and Azerbaijan should be immediately expelled from the Eastern Partnership Programme.”
Friday’s statement comes 10 days after the same group called for “targeted sanctions” against Azerbaijan and high ranking members of its government, saying that official Baku was using the coronavirus pandemic to oppress opposition forces in the country.
William Lavender, a member of the Brussels-based European Friends of Armenia, said on Friday that the events in Belarus and Azerbaijan are in direct contradiction to the principles of the EPP, of which Armenia is a member.
“Democracy, the rule of law, and human rights are the foundations upon which the Eastern Partnership is built. Too often we see some in the European Parliament willing to overlook these principles for the sake of other interests. Sadly to say, those interests are often at the expense of Armenia. I’m pleased to see that at least one group in the European Parliament is taking these principles seriously and I hope that we will soon see other groups support this Honorable position,” said Lavender.
The EPP is an initiative that governs the EU’s relations with six post-Soviet states—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
starting from the colossal fortune of this tyrannical, belligerent autocrat, who maintains the conflict to maintain his political domination, imprison any voice that dares to denounce the family theft to the detriment of his people, it seems obvious to me that to defend the dignite of this European institution it would honor itself by driving out, expelling from its institution this kind of head of state stealing from its economy by producing oil for 30 years. While all these international institutions know PERTINEMMENT that these territories claim are these populations Armeniens 90% live there and work for thousands of concerns never, never belong to the Azerbaijan that has just been created. At best Stalin has affected our territories considered as “Autonomous Region” under administration granted to Baku under a policy of Soviet fraternity and these citizens who lost their fulcated said jokingly “your land, my land, your village, my village, your home, my home … your wife my wife IS IDENTICAL. Before Stalin it was the “papi lenin” who inaugurated this formula … to agree with attaturk in order to offer our land. The policy of political force over the right of indigenous peoples to live free continues today with both Ali and his brother erdoran. Until when will international institutions accredit these practices and integrate them within them and further distribute funds and maintain these aggressions and tyranny on their population? It is a civilizational and humanitarian shame to maintain this type of state-stealing leaders and encourage them to continue. Our civilized populations are not afflicted with intellectual cecite and are moved away from this Europe and its non-DEMOCRATIC institutions to say the least. Beautiful words to expel never followed the facts.