Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
On Sept. 13, MEPs approved a resolution which contains an anti-Azerbaijan amendment calling for investigation of the recent “exposures” by several media outlets against Azerbaijan.
The amendment hastily added to a resolution on human rights in third countries concerns the investigation of alleged attempts of Azerbaijan to somehow influence the MEPs lobbying any decision-making. At the same time, the resolution mentions only one country – Azerbaijan, and this fact serves as clear proof of the biased anti-Azerbaijan approach of the resolution.
All this is based on the “investigation” of journalists, some of which are of Armenian origin. Isn’t this a surprising coincidence? However, none of the journalists really thought about the strange outcome of the alleged lobbying of Baku’s interests in the European Parliament - nine critical resolutions on Azerbaijan were adopted in 2009 alone. Did Azerbaijan really pay someone to get criticized? Such trifles don’t seem to concern journalists and MEPs at all.
All this nonsense, based on unproved facts set forth in the media, without indicating the exact source of information, was nicely wrapped and slipped to the MEPs without leaving them a chance to understand the situation. It is noteworthy that the so-called exposures of a scheme invented by journalists were published on September 5, while the anti-Azerbaijan amendment, added to the resolution of the European Parliament, was ready on September 7.
It seems the authors of the amendment were waiting for a signal by having already prepared the draft document. It serves as an excellent example of the synchronized actions against Baku upon the instructions from a single center.
The goal is so transparent – to spoil developing relations between Baku and the EU on the eve of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels and to hamper participation of Azerbaijan’s high-level delegation in the summit.
Is more evidence required? It is just enough to know the author of the amendment – MEP Petras Austrevicius, who is the closest friend of Lithuanian ambassador to Hungary Renatas Juska.
Juska became notorious after a scandal in 2013 after which the then President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė signed a decree to recall the country’s ambassadors from Azerbaijan and Hungary, Arturas Zurauskas and Juska.
In a private conversation, which surfaced on the internet, Zurauskas and Juska, expressed their opinion to support Armenians in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, because they are also Christians, to call the Nagorno-Karabakh region "Artsakh", and support those who help the Armenians.
In our opinion, everything is obvious. By the way, two days after the plenary session began, the number of MEPs who understood the real situation – as a result of Azerbaijan’s intensive explanations – increased from 0 to 290.
The incontrovertible facts testify that Baku is innocent of the charges. Finally, the number of MEPs who voted for the amendment turned out to be only 50 people more than those who voted against it.
This was clearly an Armenian provocation; however, Baku will not let Yerevan enjoy it.
Armenia now, more than ever, tries to shift the attention in the South Caucasus region from the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict to something else.
However, all this will not bring success to Yerevan. While the Armenians and their friends frantically gather a feeble anti-Azerbaijan front in the West, Baku strengthens ties and remains a strategic partner in relations with the EU.
A vivid proof of this is today’s event – signing of a new agreement on development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields – which gathered high representatives of European states in Baku.
Under the contract, the activities at the ACG block will be extended until 2050, which will undoubtedly make Baku even a closer partner of the West and serve to strengthening of Azerbaijan’s economy.
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Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency’s Russian news service