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At the session held in Strasbourg today, the European Parliament discussed cases of violations of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Azerbaijan, Russia and Angola. The EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos was present at the discussion.

The situation was rather tense in the Parliament, the correspondent of Panorama.am reported from Strasbourg.

The MPs strongly condemned the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. They called for an immediate release of all the political prisoners. Yet some MPs led by Romanian deputy Cristian Dan Preda assumed the role of Azerbaijan’s defender. Preda declared in his speech that EPP would attempt to remove the resolution vote from the agenda.

After a heated debate, when there was an announcement about the start of the vote, Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, EPP member Elmar Brok took the floor and made a statement. Brok said in his speech that he believes that no one doubts that Azerbaijan should be harshly criticized for human rights abuses, but the draft resolution contains main political positions to be discussed by the committees. He proposed removing the vote from the agenda.

That statement caused a commotion, and Ulrike Lunacek, Rebecca Harms and some other MPs criticized Brok by saying that the rules of procedure do not allow removing an issue from the vote at the last moment when discussion was already held. A animated discussion took place, as a result of which the session moderator,Romanian MP Ioan Mircea Pasku decided to hold a vote. As a result, the resolution strongly condemning Azerbaijan was adopted by a vote of 365-202, with 72 abstentions.
The draft resolution notes that in the last few years the human rights situation has consistently worsened in Azerbaijan, with intimidation of NGO heads, human rights activists, reporters and civil society, their persecution and criminal prosecution being on the rise. In the past ten years Azerbaijan experienced the worst decline in democratic governance in the whole Eurasian territory.

It is noted that the European Parliament refused to send an observer mission to Azerbaijan for the upcoming parliamentary election in November 2015 as it believes that there are no foundations for free and fair elections.

The European Parliament expresses serious concern over the continuous worsening of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. The Parliament calls on Azerbaijan to release immediately and unconditionally all the political prisoners, human rights activists, reporters and civil society members, including Khadija Ismayilova, Leyla and Arif Yunuses, Anar Mamadli, Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev, Rauf Mirkadirov, Ilgar Mamadov and others, in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.

The unprecedented crackdown on civil society in Azerbaijan is strongly condemned. The Azerbaijani authorities are urged to stop targeted criminal prosecution and arrests of reporters and human rights activists who are critical of the government.
Azerbaijan is urged to respect and fulfill its commitments towards the Council of Europe, to execute the ECHR decision of June 16, 2015 and others.

Criticism is leveled at the Azerbaijani authorities’ continued actions aimed at hindering contacts between Armenian and Azerbaijani civil society groups, young activists and intellectuals, which would of importance for overcoming the long-running hostility between the two countries. In this connection MPs recalled the work done by Leyla and Arif Yunus.

Azerbaijani authorities are urged to respect the freedom of the press and media. The state of the LGBT community in Azerbaijan causes deep concern of the European Parliament that denounces hatred towards them.

It is noted that the agreement on strategic partnership with Azerbaijan should be immediately suspended as the government failed to take concrete steps to ensure respect for human rights.

The Assembly calls on EU officials to conduct a close investigation into corruption allegations against President Ilham Aliyev and his family, which were revealed thanks to efforts of investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova.

The EU Council is urged to impose targeted sanctions and visa bans on all political figures, officials and judges involved in political repression.

The resolution calls on the European External Action service and EU member states to refrain now from observer mission during elections. It is noted that ODIHR is currently operating, and it is essential to learn of its analyses about the situation in Azerbaijan.

The resolution reaffirms the decision to send a delegation of the European Parliament to Azerbaijan as soon as possible so that the delegation together with Azerbaijani authorities will address such important problems as human rights and the Karabakh conflict.