French La Gazette du Caucase slams EU for silence on Azerbaijani refugees while supporting Armenia
The EU persistently overlooks the rights of Azerbaijanis displaced from their homes due to Armenian occupation, says French online outlet La Gazette du Caucase, Olaylar reports.
In the article, the authors highlight that the EU, which remained silent for 30 years while Azerbaijan was under Armenian occupation, is organizing a press tour to Armenia to "raise awareness" among journalists about the former occupants of Karabakh, who now returned back to their country.
"For nearly 30 years, one-fifth of Azerbaijani territory was occupied by Armenian forces, who expelled the local population, not even to replace them, as only a few lands were settled - like the city of Khankendi - but rather to raze houses, religious temples, schools, theaters, museums, and hospitals. With the ethnic cleansing of 1987, during which Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were expelled, a million Azerbaijanis were forced to flee their native lands," the article reads.
La Gazette du Caucase reminds that, when the Azerbaijani Army liberated its territories in 2020, the EU did not send any observation missions to the area, and certainly did not invite any journalists to witness firsthand the mass destruction caused by Armenians in Karabakh, nor the hundreds of thousands of landmines left behind in the former occupied territories.
"However, when squatters from Khankendi had to pack up and return to Armenia, not at the request of Azerbaijanis but by the orders of Armenian activists, the EU was quick to express its concern for them. [...] The EU seems much less concerned about those Armenians rather than about the million Azerbaijanis who were driven from their lands. To make matters worse, or rather to apply double standards, the EU provided financial and material aid to those "refugees" from Khankendi," the authors noted.
The article highlights this is not the first time the EU has "pampered" Armenia: in April 2024, the European Commission presented a resilience and growth plan for Armenia for the 2024-2027 period, with a budget of 270 million euros. This plan aims to "strengthen Armeniachr("39")s socio-economic resilience".
"The European Commission and the Republic of Armenia also recently announced "the opening of a dialogue on visa liberalization". This process aims to help Armenia conclude an agreement with the Union granting a visa exemption for short stays." And as if that wasn't enough, it is in Armenia, not in the war-torn Karabakh, that the MEPC decided to organize a press tour from November 4 to 7. During this press tour, the MEPC website reports, journalists "will be able to discover humanitarian projects in Armenia, interview refugees benefiting from EU-funded humanitarian aid, and meet the EU humanitarian team on the ground". It's best to close the quotes here, lest the nauseating stench from these texts spreads too far," the article concludes.