The plenary sitting of the European Parliament started discussing the issue dedicated to the situation in Nagorno Karabakh. The vast majority of the envoys demanded that the Union leadership hold Turkey accountable for its active incitement of the conflict.
The lawmakers again called on the parties to cease hostilities and return to the table of negotiations. Representatives of the parliament considered Turkey's involvement unacceptable, noting that Ankara, to put it mildly, does not show the behavior of a candidate country for EU membership. The only parliament that took a unilateral pro-Azerbaijani stance was the representative of Hungary.
The Swedish representative stated that the tragedy in Artsakh is a joint dictatorial initiative by Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He also quoted Andrei Sakharov saying that the war in Artsakh is a struggle for the life and death of all the peoples of the world.
The representative of Germany Martina Michels insisted that the reason for the escalation in the region is Turkey's aspirations, and that Ilham Aliyev openly states that his enemy is the Armenian people.
Representatives of Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece and Spain also called for peace or accused the leaders of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Some mentioned the Armenian Genocide in their speeches, noting that it was done by the same hand, it's time to call everything by their names.
"What is happening in Nagorno Karabakh today is a continuation of the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey. Now I have a question to Mr. Borrell. How long do we have to tolerate this unacceptable behavior of Turkey?... For the past 16 months, I have only heard words from the European Union, but observed no actions... We must immediately impose sanctions on Azerbaijan, Turkey, provide immediate financial and military assistance to Armenia," said the Greek Representative Ioannis Lagos.
Josep Borrell, the European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated: "The message is clear, it was repeated 65 times. We need to make a decision quickly. The European Council must make a decision, but they have already said that the conflict must be resolved within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. We call on the parties to end the violence immediately. We are concerned that yesterday the Turkish Minister again expressed support for Azerbaijan. The statement of the Azerbaijani Minister that they will not stop until Armenia surrenders was even more worrying. We do what we can. We support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Turkey must be pressured to stop intervening".
