Azerbaijan rejects European Parliament’s annual report on foreign, security policy

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan on Thursday rejected the European Parliament’s annual report on the 27-member bloc’s common foreign and security policy, saying it contains “slanderous and completely groundless provisions.”

“These slanderous and completely groundless provisions, which are a part of the smear campaign against Azerbaijan, where all the facts are distorted, raise serious questions about the future of the common foreign and security policy of the European Union,” Aykhan Hajizada, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement.

Expressing that the report reflects a “shallow approach” to foreign and security policy, Hajizada said it also shows that members of the European Parliament are “captive to populist politics.”

Hajizada further said the European Parliament “demonstrates disrespect against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan,” adding that the contents of the report illustrate that the “personal interests” of EU lawmakers “prevail over international law and the interests” of the EU.

“As long as the European Union does not put an end to this arbitrariness within its institutions, the foreign and security policy of the institution will continue to be captive of its utopian approaches in the system of international relations,” Hajizada concluded.

Azerbaijan’s National Assembly also condemned the report, expressing that the European Parliament intends to persist in its pursuit of “new achievements” in line with its “duplicitous and hypocritical approach” to the events in the South Caucasus region.

“Having armed themselves with populism and demagogy, intent on gaining a political capital by issuing documents and making statements that do not serve the cause of peace and stability at all, European politicians, it seems, unwaveringly play the role of ‘a toolbox’ that certain circles have cast them in,” it said.

The National Assembly went on to claim that a number of points in the annual report, which it said concurred with Armenia’s official statements, showed that it was drawn up "under the influence and to the dictation of the Armenian lobby.”

On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted two reports, in which it condemned what it claimed “policies of aggression” by Azerbaijan and called on the EU to impose sanctions against Azerbaijani authorities and suspend its memorandum of understanding on energy with Baku.

It also welcomed the establishment of the EU Mission in Armenia and the steps taken to strengthen its capacity, and called on the European Council to extend the mission for five more years and broaden its geographical scope to "potentially include the Armenia-Türkiye border."