The European Union may have found itself deeper into a conflict than it had originally planned when it invited both Armenia and Azerbaijan into the Euronest.
Recently, Azerbaijan has felt as though it was dealing with unfair persecution from a select group of members in the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and decided to formally withdraw from the union. According to the resolution that was drafted on 10 September of this year, the Milli Mejlis (the Azeri Congress) cited:
They [Euronest members] slander Azerbaijan, trying to damage the image of our country and isolate it. Since last September when this institution began to operate with a new staff, Azerbaijan hasn’t managed to begin a dialogue with it due to the fault of several European Parliament members, including its President.
Many of the members of the Euronest have been plaguing Azerbaijan with accusations of human rights violations. These violations stem from the treatment of prisoners that are being held in Azeri prisons. The accusations came soon after Azerbaijan refused to participate in the session that was held in March 2015. Azerbaijan claimed that the reason for non-participation in the session held in Yerevan, Armenia stemmed from the continuing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the horrendous state of the Sarsang Reservoir, and the continued blockade of Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan has continued to voice concerns over these three regions over the years, but seems to be especially irritated that little progress has been made through Euronest in obtaining any type of satisfactory solution or even substantive progress.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region is a part of Azerbaijan that is run by the ethnic Armenian population. In the summer of 2014, clashes between the Armenians and the Azeris rose to the highest levels since 1994. The area is still prone to frequent commando raids and sniper fire, which makes the lives of residents there difficult to say the least. Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to reign in the leaders by calling them both to Sochi. Putin was able to stop the rising tension, but was not able to bring either party closer to a resolution. When the Euronest decided to hold the 2015 session in Armenia, it left Azerbaijan feeling like it had no place within the assembly. Azerbaijan did not understand how the Euronest would claim such atrocities committed by the Azeris while turning a blind eye toward the Armenians’ bad behavior and even giving them a great honor by holding the next session in their state.
Azeris also felt slighted when Russia persuaded Armenia to join Putin’s Eurasian Union. It is this alliance, where Russia is providing a security backing to Armenia, which has increased the Azeri feeling of insecurity. In response, Azerbaijan has been utilizing its hydrocarbon revenues to increase the size and strength of its military. Combine this with a new more nationalist defense minister and diplomatic problems are arising in all areas. The Azeris have lost trust in the West to deal fairly with its issues with Armenia. The reason for this can be attributed to how the West has dealt with President Putin over Crimea: Azeris do not seem to understand how the West can try to punish Putin for that, but continue to ignore the alleged illegalities and immoralities committed by the Armenians against them.
The second reason that Azerbaijan decided not to attend the session in Yerevan is the increasingly dilapidated status of the Sarsang Reservoir. Since 2013 it has been known that the dam at the reservoir was in an emergency condition. Since the dam was seized over 20 years ago, it has been under the control of Armenia. The problem is that if—more likely when—there will be a failure at the dam, it will threaten the lives of over 400,000 people that live downstream, who are predominantly Azeri. The Azerbaijani Government continues to make evacuation plans in the event the dam fails, but the estimates of engineers give less than one hour from the catastrophic collapse of the dam to the whole area being submerged underwater.
The other issue that revolves around the Sarsang Reservoir is that the Armenians continue to use the reservoir as a way to threaten the livelihood of the inhabitants on the Azeri side. Since the dam is controlled by Armenia, it can decide when to turn the water and power generation features on and off. It uses this control to leverage threats against the Azeris. This is serious enough that the Chairman of the Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA, Elkhan Suleymanov, forwarded his concerns about the physical status of the dam as well as the way Armenia uses the dam against Azerbaijan not just to Euronest but to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Suleymanov included in his reports that during the summer months Armenia would shut the dam down, depriving the people downstream of the commodity of water. During the winter months Armenia would open the floodgates, causing agricultural lands to flood and roads to wash out.
The last reason that Azerbaijan protested attending the last session of Euronest in Yerevan is because of the blockades that have been in effect against Azerbaijan’s autonomous province of Nakhchivan. The blockades proved severely detrimental: Azerbaijan was unable to supply food and fuel and the gas, rail, electrical, and radio lines were all cut to the province. During the harsh winter there was not enough fuel and some of the people resorted to burning their furniture in order to stay warm. The only lifeline in the early days of the blockade that sustained Nakhchivan were the two small bridges that were built by Heydar Aliev. It is a testament to the province and the people of Azerbaijan that the province is now a growing, self-sustaining region. The increasing hydrocarbon wealth of Azerbaijan has also helped significantly to revitalize and supply the area. The future endeavors of the province include spiritual and ecological tourism. Therefore the accusations that have been made against Azerbaijan in the recent past by Euronest members threaten the continued prosperity of the region.
These newest claims by Euronest against Azerbaijan only further ignite the fury of the Azeris. Unfortunately, some of that anger has fueled a Baku crackdown that has led to many anti-government activists’ arrests and non-governmental organizations finding their accounts suddenly frozen. The growth of Azerbaijan’s wealth has rebuilt its confidence so that it no longer wants to be controlled by any organization, whether that is European or Russian. But Europe choosing to ignore the faults on the Armenian side and continuing to prosecute those on the Azerbaijan side relatively exclusively, while Russia provides additional economic opportunity to the Armenians, is taking a negative situation and fanning into a full-on future inferno of hostility. Consequently, in this instance, the ‘Euronest’ is something the Azeri bird is eager and happy to leave.
