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A Polish ruling-party MEP has defended his Azerbaijan-friendly vote, at the same time as EU assist slips within the wake of its “ethnic cleaning”.
Tomasz Poręba was one in all simply 9 MEPs who voted towards a European Parliament (EP) decision on Thursday (5 October) condemning Azerbaijan’s ruthlessness towards ethnic Armenians.
The decision sailed by means of with 491 votes in favour.
It spoke of an “unjustified navy assault” by Azerbaijan on the ethnic Armenian exclave of Nagorno-Karabakh on 19 September.
It additionally accused Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev of “ethnic cleaning” after some 100,000 Armenians fled his armed forces.
“The hospitals … are usually not functioning, the medical personnel left, the water board authorities left, the director of the morgue additionally left,” the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) advised Reuters on Tuesday, talking of the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, Stepanakert.
“So this state of affairs, the scene is kind of surreal,” the ICRC mentioned.
Out of the 9 no-voters in Brussels on Thursday, three MEPs from the eurosceptic Id and Democracy (ID) group voted not due to Azerbaijan’s actions, however as a result of ID felt EU parliament foreign-policy resolutions have been “silly” in precept, an ID spokesman advised EUobserver.
This put Poręba, who defended Baku on substance, in a good smaller minority, politically talking.
“When it comes to right this moment’s voting, for my part, the decision is extraordinarily one-sided and takes into consideration the arguments of just one aspect of the battle,” he mentioned by e mail.
The opposite no-voters have been Latvian socialist Andrew Ameriks, Bulgarian Christian Democrat Asim Ademov, former Romaninan president Traian Băsescu, Dutch far-right MEP Marcel De Graaff, and Bulgarian liberal Ilhan Kyuchyuk.
They did not instantly reply to EUobserver’s questions.
Most of Azerbaijan’s EU associates additionally stored a low profile in a parliament debate in Brussels on 20 September, when no person took the ground in Aliyev’s defence.
In the meantime, Poręba was amongst a handful of MEPs who visited Nagorno-Karabakh with the assistance of Aliyev’s EU embassy within the buildup to his assault.
Ameriks, who additionally voted no on Thursday, additionally went on journeys there.
However the different two who visited the area — Slovenian Christian Democrat Franc Bogovič and German liberal Engin Eroglu — backed the Aliyev-critical textual content in what seemed like a change of coronary heart.
The EP movement additionally known as for “suspension of all imports of oil and gasoline from Azerbaijan to the EU within the occasion of navy aggression towards Armenian territorial integrity”.
Imports from Azerbaijan to the EU soared by 40 % final 12 months, although they nonetheless accounted for for simply three % of Europe’s want.
MEPs’ resolutions are non-binding on EU international locations, which take selections on sanctions by consensus.
However the EU international service has drafted proposals for Azerbaijan sanctions, in accordance with Reuters, in a transfer which signifies a groundswell of assist from influential member states, together with the Netherlands.
These embrace a halt to high-level conferences and, doubtlessly, focused blacklists.
“In case severe human rights violations are dedicated [against Armenians], restrictive measures towards people accountable for such violations may very well be envisaged,” the draft EU proposal mentioned.
For its half, the European Fee had cultivated nearer ties with Aliyev previous to his newest assault in its seek for extra non-Russian gasoline.
However because the EU wonders find out how to deal with him if he makes use of additional violence, Poręba gave an perception into Polish pondering on the difficulty.
The MEP, from the ruling Legislation and Justice (PiS) social gathering, mentioned: “Former Polish president Lech Kaczyński, whose coverage I like, handled relations with Azerbaijan as strategic within the dimension of vitality safety of Poland and Europe”.
“Poland is constructing its place on this area. For instance, subsequent week a consultant workplace of 20 main Polish corporations shall be opened in Baku,” he added.
The nationalist-populist PiS is combating re-election on 15 October and has larded its marketing campaign with a Poland-first message, proper all the way down to bashing even Ukrainian refugees.
And even when Poręba stood out as the one PiS euro-deputy who voted no, the abstention listing advised a story of Polish quietism on Armenia’s nationwide tragedy.
It additionally indicated Poland won’t be keen to again any EU sanctions towards its “strategic” pal.
The listing of Polish ruling-party MEPs who sat on the fence of what the overwhelming majority of Europeans noticed as “ethnic cleaning” included former PiS prime minister Beata Szydło and two former international ministers, Anna Fotyga and Witold Waszczykowski — in one other instance of the Poland-first strategy.
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