On the other hand, under President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has become the autocracy par excellence. Power in Baku is concentrated in a single family; Dissent is crushed, journalists imprisoned, elections in the elections. In February 2024, Aliyev obtained a fifth term with 92% of the votes – of electoral observers described as a sham. His diet even appointed his wife vice-president.
Meanwhile, on the international scene, Baku was cheeky aggressive. In 2020, he sparked a war against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, violating a fragile ceasefire. Later, the Azerbaijani forces blocked and attacked the region, culminating in a military lightning offensive which forced more than 100,000 Armenian civilians to flee their ancestral houses – a humanitarian disaster that took place in real time while Europe was watching.
And to date, Azerbaijan illegally holds Armenian prisoners of war and civilians as hostages.
Despite all this, since Europe sought to wear from Russian gas, he treated Azerbaijan as a coveted partner. The EU signed an energy major with Baku in 2022, aimed at doubled gas imports. And standing next to Aliyev, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen praised the country as a “reliable” supplier.
It seems that when Europe looks at the Caucasus, he sees the oil and gas wells of Azerbaijan but ignores the democracy and security of Armenia.
As Nathalie Loison observed, French Eurodélecminance and former Minister of European Affairs, “going to an autocracy that continues to threaten her neighbor without going to Armenia during the same trip is a mistake … Bakou targets a Member State of the EU with malignant interferences and sides with Russia, when democratic Armenia turns to Europe.”
His words underline an absurd reality. Realpolitik, it seems, has overshadowed the principle, and the EU seems hypocritical when it reprimands authoritarianism in eastern Europe while granting itself in the South Caucasus.
Endayé by energy agreements and geopolitical prudence, the international response to the aggression of Azerbaijan has been lukewarm for too long. But European security and values are indivisible, and the block cannot cut exceptions without undergoing its moral authority. Supporting Armenia, an emerging democracy in siege, is not only the right thing to do, it also serves the long -term interest of Europe in a stable international order based on rules.
Politices
