EGN NEWS DESK
Plenty of MEPs went even additional, calling for the EU to axe a cope with Azerbaijan to greater than double pure fuel purchases. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the pact in 2022 to assist Europe ditch Russian vitality.
The settlement fuels human rights abuses and permits Russia to launder its fossil fuels by way of Azerbaijan, centrist French MEP Nathalie Loiseau alleged.
“We are literally buying Putin’s fuel and oil,” the Renew lawmaker mentioned. Loiseau’s allegations are much like a cost Ibadoghlu, the imprisoned activist, additionally leveled.
In a fiery response on Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s overseas coverage chief, Hikmet Hajiyev, hit again at each the Commission and the Parliament, which he mentioned had been influenced by the nation’s long-term rival, Armenia.
“Some of the discussions on the European Parliament reminds us of a theater of the absurd or a circus,” he instructed POLITICO in a press release. “The world has seen the shameful observe of corruption at this establishment. Many of these loud audio system towards my nation are on the payroll of the Armenian foyer and the Armenian authorities’s PR and lobbying marketing campaign” — a declare he made with out proof.
“I might additionally advise EU human rights commissioner to deal significantly with rising human rights issues within the European Union as a substitute of preaching [to] others,” added Hajiyev, a prime adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “Calls for releasing Armenian warfare criminals who killed harmless Azerbaijani civilians are equal to releasing Nazi warfare criminals.”
Nongovernmental organizations have referred to as for Western leaders to make use of COP29 to focus on a current crackdown on journalists, activists and opposition figures in Azerbaijan. A Human Rights Watch report earlier this month warned that “an rising variety of civil society activists have left the nation since November 2023, additional diminishing the variety of organizations and activists talking up for human rights and difficult the federal government.”
