Latest news with #Karabakh
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Europe accused of going soft on Azerbaijan to avoid buying Russian gas
When a young peace activist was jailed for 15 years for high treason in Azerbaijan last month, his friends' anger was directed primarily at the European Union, ahead of the government that put him behind Samadov, a 30-year-old PhD student, is facing one of the harshest sentences ever given to a critic of President Ilham Aliyev's 21-year rule. He rejects the charge as EU "may keep flirting with Baku, but silence has its cost", one critic after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared Azerbaijan a "key partner" in EU efforts to move away from Russian natural that time, Aliyev has re-established control of the breakaway Karabakh region, causing an exodus of its entire Armenian population; he has also secured a fifth consecutive term in an election widely criticised by monitors, and cracked down on opposition and press European Parliament called on the EU last year to impose sanctions on Baku and end reliance on Azerbaijan's gas exports. However, top foreign policy officials avoid publicly criticising Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, visited Baku in April, she was heavily criticised by Aliyev's opponents for emphasising "great potential" for EU-Azerbaijan ties while at least 21 leading journalists were detained in Baku. Aliyev has justified arresting journalists by the need to "protect the media landscape from external negative influences", accusing reporters of "illegally receiving funding from abroad".He has also long accused international organisations of bias and meddling in domestic politics, and the Baku offices of the UN, the International Red Cross Committee and the BBC have all been ordered to shut policy has in effect given Aliyev "a free hand", says Eldar Mamedov, a former Latvian diplomat who served as foreign policy adviser to the European Parliament's Social Democrat group."The repression, arrests of dissidents, bloggers, and opposition voices have long strained Baku-Brussels relations," he told the BBC. "Since Russia's aggression in Ukraine, this issue virtually disappeared from the agenda."The European Union rejects the allegation."[The EU] is concerned by the shrinking civic space in [Azerbaijan]," a spokesman told the BBC, and has called on Baku "to release all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental rights"."The EU has consistently raised its concerns at all levels, both in public and in private," including during Kaja Kallas's visit to Baku, he added. The EU wants to diversify where it gets its gas, to avoid being dependent on a single supplier such as is far from being the biggest player, as its overall share in EU natural gas imports remains a modest 4.3%, despite an uptick in the share is much higher in some member states connected to the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline from Azerbaijan. Up to 40% of Bulgarian natural gas imports come from Azerbaijan, and for Italy and Greece it is 15%.This makes it difficult for the EU to present a united front, according to a senior European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity."Europe in this situation does not have a huge amount of credible leverage over Azerbaijan," he power will not go out in Europe without Azerbaijani gas, but that is not the point, says Benjamin Godwin, a risk analyst specialising in the Caucasus and Central Asia."The EU's strategy is to have as much gas from as many different locations as possible," he says. "And while it is not reliant on Azeri gas, it would like to have more gas from Azerbaijan to ultimately reduce its dependence on Russia."That energy partnership "does not change our stance on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan", the EU spokesman told the BBC. President Aliyev has other benefits to Europe besides has consistently supported Ukraine's territorial integrity in the face of Russia's invasion - a rare stance among ex-Soviet states seen by the Kremlin as Azerbaijan has not imposed sanctions on Russia, it has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian relations with Moscow have taken a dive in recent Azerbaijani Airlines plane crashed with the loss of 38 lives last December - apparently shot down by mistake by a Russian anti-aircraft crisis then deepened following the deaths of two Azerbaijani men in Russian police openly challenging Russia, Aliyev has sought to take on a larger role in a region traditionally dominated by Moscow, experts say. But he also presents himself to the West as an opponent of Vladimir Putin."Azerbaijan has pocketed the attention and they played it pretty well. They are seeing that all sides want to be friends with them and they are making use of that in all directions," the senior EU diplomat told the well-placed European diplomat said: "We are absolutely not happy with [Azerbaijan's human rights record], but there is not much we can do."When seven Azerbaijani investigative journalists were given long jail terms last month, the EU's diplomatic service (EEAS) said it was a "worrying development" and called for "immediate steps to ensure a safe and enabling environment for all journalists".So far the EU has stayed silent over Bahruz Samadov's jail term for treason. But his friends say he recently tried to take his life and fear for his safety.
Russia Today
7 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Armenia ready to place part of territory under US control
Armenia has quietly agreed to hand over a strategic part of its territory to the US, the Spanish news outlet Periodista Digital has claimed. The small, landlocked country in the South Caucasus has a longstanding dispute with neighboring, oil-rich Azerbaijan, which in 2023 regained full control over the breakaway region of Karabakh. On Tuesday, the Spanish publication reported having obtained a copy of a memorandum from unnamed members of the Armenian diaspora in France, outlining the creation of a 42-kilometer (27-mile) corridor through southern Armenia, connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan. The area would reportedly be managed by a US company and protected by around 1,000 armed private contractors, who would be authorized to use force to 'preserve the integrity of the corridor.' The arrangement is said to be designed to last 99 years. According to the outlet, the text of the memorandum has been approved by the US, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Periodista Digital described the document as 'a catastrophe' for Armenia, claiming it would benefit the US, as well as Armenia's regional rivals Azerbaijan and Türkiye, and strain Yerevan's relations with France. In a statement on Wednesday, the Armenian government denied the report, calling it 'an element of hybrid warfare and manipulative propaganda,' and dismissing Periodista Digital as a 'dubious source.' The US and Azerbaijan have not commented on the matter. Yerevan and Baku have been engaged in talks to normalize relations, with Azerbaijan demanding Armenia establish a transport corridor to Nakhchivan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rejected the proposal earlier this month, stating that the dispute must be resolved based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and equality.
Russia Today
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Armenia approved to place its territory under US control
Armenia has quietly agreed to hand over a strategic part of its territory to the United States, the Spanish news outlet Periodista Digital has claimed. The small, landlocked country in the South Caucasus has a longstanding dispute with neighboring, oil-rich Azerbaijan, which in 2023 regained full control over the breakaway region of Karabakh. On Tuesday, the Spanish publication reported that it had obtained a copy of a memorandum from unnamed members of the Armenian diaspora in France, outlining the creation of a 42-kilometer (27-mile) corridor through southern Armenia, connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan. The area would reportedly be managed by a US company and protected by around 1,000 armed private contractors, who would be authorized to use force to 'preserve the integrity of the corridor.' The arrangement is said to be designed to last 99 years. According to the outlet, the text of the memorandum has been approved by the US, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Periodista Digital described the document as 'a catastrophe' for Armenia, claiming it would benefit the US, as well as Armenia's regional rivals Azerbaijan and Türkiye, and strain Yerevan's relations with France. In a statement on Wednesday, the Armenian government denied the report, calling it 'an element of hybrid warfare and manipulative propaganda,' and dismissing Periodista Digital as a 'dubious source.' The US and Azerbaijan have not commented on the matter. Yerevan and Baku have been engaged in talks to normalize relations, with Azerbaijan demanding Armenia establish a transport corridor to Nakhchivan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rejected the proposal earlier this month, stating that the dispute must be resolved based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and equality.
Al Jazeera
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders meet for peace talks in UAE
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks in the United Arab Emirates after nearly four decades of conflict. The meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, confirmed by both their governments, comes after the two countries finalised a draft peace deal in March. The South Caucasus countries have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Peace talks began after Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September 2023, prompting a huge exodus of almost all of the territory's 100,000 Armenians, who fled to Armenia. But the timeline for sealing a deal remains uncertain. Ceasefire violations along the heavily militarised 1,000km (620-mile) shared border surged soon after the draft deal was announced, though there have been no reported violations recently. In a potential stumbling block to a deal, Azerbaijan has said it wants Armenia to change its constitution, which it says makes implicit claims to Azerbaijani territory. Yerevan denies this, but Pashinyan has repeatedly stressed in recent months – most recently this week – that the South Caucasus country's founding charter needs to be updated. Azerbaijan also asked for a transport corridor through Armenia, linking the bulk of its territory to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku's ally, Turkiye. Pashinyan and Aliyev's last encounter was in May, on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Tirana, Albania. In June, Pashinyan made a rare visit to Istanbul to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a meeting Armenia described as a 'historic' step towards regional peace. This week, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope for a swift peace deal between the Caucasus neighbours. The outbreak of hostilities between the two countries in the late 1980s prompted mass expulsions of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Azeris from Armenia, and Armenians, who are majority Christian, from Azerbaijan.
Al Arabiya
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Armenia, Azerbaijan to meet in UAE for peace talks
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates for peace talks, a day after the US expressed hope for a swift deal. Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over the disputed Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured from Armenian forces in a lightning offensive in 2023, prompting the exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians. The arch foes agreed on the text of a comprehensive peace deal in March, but Baku has since outlined a host of demands -- including amendments to Armenia's constitution to drop its territorial claims for the Karabakh -- before signing the document. On Wednesday, the Armenian government said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet the following day in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, 'within the framework of the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.' The Azerbaijani presidency issued an identical statement. The announcement came a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope for a swift peace deal between the Caucasus neighbors. Aliyev and Pashinyan last met on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Albania in May. At the time, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Antonio Costa called for a prompt signature of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
