It’s Time to Impose Sanctions Against the Authoritarian Aliyev Regime: Joint Statement of European Parliament Members

A group of members from all factions of the European Parliament has made a joint statement in response to Azerbaijan and Russia's criticisms, negative reactions, and threats regarding Armenian-French military cooperation. The members emphasized in their statement that having a combat-ready and modern armed forces is a sovereign right of any country.

According to a report from the Armenpress correspondent in Brussels, European Parliament members noted that the accusations from the Russian and Azerbaijani regimes against Armenia, claiming that the latter is provoking conflict in the South Caucasus, again demonstrate a conspiracy between the two countries that, as recently as September 2023, led to the ethnic cleansing of over 140,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Europarliamentarians expressed astonishment that authoritarian and aggressor countries like Azerbaijan and Russia condemn France, an EU member state, seeking to exploit existing disagreements and contradictions either domestically or between countries for their opportunistic goals.

“This is by no means acceptable to the European Union, and it is high time to impose sanctions against the authoritarian Aliyev regime for its destructive actions that undermine regional peace and security and violate human rights. We strongly condemn the official statements from Baku and Moscow and urge the European Commission and the European External Action Service to respond to this situation immediately,” the joint statement reads.

The joint statement was signed by Miriam Lexmann from Slovakia, François-Xavier Bellamy, Nathalie Loiseau, Raphaël Glucksmann, Markéta Gregorová, Christophe Grégoire, Céline Imard, Laurent Cattiaux from France, Lucas Furlas and Costas Mavridis from Cyprus, Bert-Jan Ruissen from the Netherlands, Andrius Kubilius and Rasa Juknevičienė from Lithuania, and Charlie Weimers from Sweden.