MP: European Parliament's smear campaign affect Azerbaijan's political will

The European Parliament's smear campaign will not deter Azerbaijan from its political will, Azerbaijani MP Nigar Mammadova told Report.

According to the MP, the scale of the European Parliament's slander and bias has increased over the past 35 years: "The resolution 'The Situation in Azerbaijan, Violation of Human Rights and International Law, and Relations with Armenia' adopted by the European Parliament consists of slander and baseless accusations. The organization continues its bias and hypocrisy. Official Baku does not accept any of the fabricated accusations. The EU institutions must understand that they cannot speak to Azerbaijan in the language of threats and blackmail. As President Ilham Aliyev stated, in an environment where multilateralism has been struggling in recent years, Azerbaijan has been able to demonstrate the importance and necessity of multilateral diplomacy to states with long-term independence history."

The MP stated that European Parliament members violated freedom of speech and thought in the issues they highlighted in the resolution:

"They are also trying to prevent the return of nearly 300,000 Western Azerbaijanis to their historical homeland. Back in September 1988, during the Soviet era, when territorial claims against Azerbaijan emerged, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the transfer of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region to Armenian SSR. The document titled 'Situation in Soviet Armenia' called for the unification of the then Nagorno-Karabakh region with Armenia, taking into account the demands voiced in mass demonstrations in Armenian SSR, and stated that 'the European Parliament supports the Armenian minority's demand for unification with the Armenian Socialist Republic.' The EP also called on Soviet authorities to ensure the safety of '500,000' Armenians in Azerbaijan and to punish those involved in 'massacres against Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan' under Soviet laws."

Mammadova said that crimes committed by illegal armed gangs against Azerbaijanis were ignored: "The point is that when this resolution was adopted, the deportation of the Azerbaijani population from Armenian SSR, murders, property seizures, etc., had already occurred. But then, as today, the atrocities faced by Azerbaijanis were not addressed at all. It seems that the EP's nature hasn't changed in 35 years. Unfortunately, the scale of slander and bias regarding Azerbaijan has increased even more."

She emphasized that such a biased, unfair smear campaign conducted without considering international law will not deter Azerbaijan from its political will: "The continuation of the smear campaign against Azerbaijan through various EU institutions and biased steps promote revanchism in Armenia and harm peace efforts in the region. The EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan, who was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was also demanded to refrain from biased steps that violate Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, interference in internal affairs, and harming peace and stability in the region."

The MP said that Armenia, the Armenian lobby, and Islamophobes cannot deter Azerbaijan from its path with their intense anti-Azerbaijan campaign, and such resolutions have no significance: "As President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated, such biased documents are worth no more than a piece of paper for Azerbaijan."