Armenia dreams of Western sanctions against Azerbaijan But EU sees no illegality by Baku

Before the bitter aftertaste of disappointment from the statement of the UN mission and the representative of the US State Department about the absence of facts of “ethnic cleansing” against the Armenians of Garabagh had passed, the Armenian public received a new portion of frustration - this time from the European Union.

Armenia and its patrons really hoped for various kinds of sanctions that the EU could apply against Baku in response to the “aggression against Artsakh.” These forces even carried out the most thorough preparations - the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the need to review relations between the EU and Azerbaijan and impose sanctions against it, in particular, to suspend negotiations on a partnership agreement with the EU, refuse to simplify the visa regime, and reduce the level of cooperation in some areas, reduce or even refuse in the event of “military aggression or hybrid attacks” against Armenia from the purchase of Azerbaijani energy resources.

Immediately after the “historic” meeting of the European Parliament for the Armenians, the summit of the European Political Community was held in Granada, Spain. It was supposed to host a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. Due to the provocative policy of France, President Aliyev demanded that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan be included in the meeting participants.

However, Western colleagues didn’t accept the demand. That is why President Aliyev refused the Granada trip. The absence of Azerbaijan’s president gave the meeting a sad note of a meeting of classmates who were tired of each other. However, this did not prevent the parties from adopting a final statement, in which they could not help but include an absolutely meaningless, but pleasing to the Armenian ear, point about the need for the return of “Armenian refugees” to Garabagh without any conditions and under international monitoring.

Meanwhile, the Armenians were counting on much more - namely, some kind of voicing of the threat to Baku with sanctions from the mouths of European leaders. Unfortunately for the Armenians, none other than the main hawk of Armenian revanchism, Macron, dotted the I, who said: “Now is not the time for sanctions. They would be counterproductive and would interfere with the best possible defence of Armenian territory and its population.”

It has to be said that such a reaction was quite expected, if not by the Armenians, then certainly by their defenders, the MEPs. Nathalie Loiseau, chair of the European Parliament's subcommittee on defence, together with 60 MEPs, sent a request to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in advance about what restrictive measures would be taken against Baku in connection with the "hostilities" in Garabagh. In this address, she herself draws attention to the dependence of many EU member states on Azerbaijani gas, that is Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania. She is echoed by the well-known publication Politico: “And although European politicians are often ready to take Armenia’s side in their statements, Azerbaijan’s influence on the European Union is much stronger, since Brussels considers Caspian gas as an alternative to Russian gas.” As we see, not only Armenians but also pro-Armenian figures within the European Union itself refer to the EU’s dependence on Azerbaijani energy resources as the main obstacle to imposing sanctions against Baku.

There is a lot of deceit in this position. The point is that any application of sanctions must be justified by international law. Azerbaijan has not committed any actions contrary to international law. Baku was restoring its sovereignty on its own territory. You can pay attention to the fact that Macron veiledly explained the impossibility of sanctions precisely by the fact that Azerbaijan carried out lawful actions on its territory.

This, of course, does not mean that economic ties between the EU and Azerbaijan do not play any role in this issue. Of course, they play. However, the logic here is different - economic ties with Azerbaijan are important enough to not allow oneself to trample on international law for the sake of them. Understanding this very well, pro-Armenian politicians emphasize this point in the sauce they need, in fact admitting that they regret the presence of factors that prevent them from not caring about law and justice.