Azerbaijan’s chief diplomatic representative to the EU and Belgium has refused to delete a tweet seemingly threatening to shoot an EU delegation to the contested Nagorno-Karabakh, despite being summoned by the European External Action Service (EEAS) to account for the post.
Vaqif Sadıqov, who serves as head of Azerbaijan’s diplomatic mission to the EU, evoked outrage after tweeting a picture of a sniper rifle at a delegation of European MEPs visiting the contested border regions between Armenia and Azerbaijan asking them to “Guys, keep clear of {the} Azerbaijani state border…”
Azerbaijan has been condemned by Western human rights agencies in recent months for an ongoing blockade of approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians in the disputed Lachin District along its border with Armenia. In 2020, Azeri forces captured the region following a one-sided border war with Armenia. Russian peacekeepers and Western observers have remained operational in the area amid accusations of a media whitewashing by the Azeri government regarding the Lachin blockade.
Sadıqov was tweeting in relation to a delegation of MEPs from the European Parliament’s security and defence committee who were meeting with members of the Armenian foreign ministry at the time.
French Renew MEP Nathalie Loiseau, who was a member of the delegation, slammed Sadıqov and the Azeris for threatening European officials directly, saying that the response would only force the EU to redouble their efforts toward helping the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
While the EU has ruled out sanctions against Azerbaijan, likely motivated by strategically important gas supplies, it has taken a stronger rhetorical line against Azerbaijan in recent months, angering Baku and its ally Turkey.
The matter was raised in the European Parliament by German MEP Lars Patrick Berg who asked if the Commission regretted last year’s decision by President von der Leyen to meet with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and whether the EU should reconsider good faith relations with Azerbaijan as a consequence. Berg described the tweet as indicative of an attitude of aggression from Azerbaijan in a comment to The European Conservative, saying that the EU needed to review its current diplomatic relationship with Baku.
The Commission responded to Berg’s inquiries by saying that the EEAS had summoned Ambassador Sadıqov and instructed him that such behaviour would not be tolerated. Despite this dressing down by EU officials, the original tweet by Sadıqov remains undeleted with 81 likes and over 324,000 views. In a statement to The European Conservative, a spokesman for the EEAS confirmed Sadıqov had indeed been brought into their office to account for the tweet and that the ambassador displayed an “unacceptable lack of respect” for EU institutions.
Neither the ambassador nor the Azeri embassy had responded to media inquiries from The European Conservative at the time of publication. Despite the criticism since the tweet, Ambassador Sadıqov has met with EU Council President Charles Michel.
On-the-ground reports from Nagorno-Karabakh point to a worsening situation with medical convoys from the region suspended last week following harassment from Azeri authorities.
Former Armenian diplomat and foreign policy consultant Sossi Tatikyan outlined Baku’s strategy of squeezing out ethnic Armenians speaking to The European Conservative adding that Russia is increasingly perceived as backing Azerbaijan in the dispute:
Since Azerbaijan first imposed [the] blockade last December, it has been further deepening it step-by-step making it total since June. Its objective is subjugation or ethnic cleansing: Subjugation means cutting their link with Armenia, depriving them of their ethnic identity, making them dissolve their self-governance institutions and submit to the autocratic rule of Azerbaijan without any civil and political rights.
According to Tatikyan, Azerbaijan also plays a potential role in “laundering” Russian gas illegally into the West and says the Azeri government objects to any form of peacekeeping or monitoring effort in Nagorno-Karabakh in spite of claims of ethnic cleansing.
Despite the steadfast defence of Ukrainian autonomy, the EU has been accused of ignoring the plight of trapped Armenians in Lachin as one Cypriot MEP directly accused Azerbaijan of war crimes this week.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been ongoing since the collapse of the Soviet Union with Azerbaijan saying that it is simply defending Azeris against reciprocal persecution by Armenia. Previous attempts to mediate the conflict by the EU, Russia, and the United States have so far failed to provide a diplomatic solution.
