By NVARD CHALIKYAN
Panorama.am
Panorama.am presents an interview with Mr. Hans-Jürgen Zahorka, Chief Editor of European Union Foreign Affairs Journal (EUFAJ) and a former Member of European Parliament. Mr. Zahorka shared his view on the approach of Europe to Azerbaijan’s deteriorating human rights record, Azerbaijan’s significance as an energy exporter to Europe, the formation of the Nagorno Karabakh group in the EP, some aspects of EU-Armenia future relations and other issues.
Commenting on the question of deteriorating human rights record in Azerbaijan, which was once again raised in a wave of protests in Germany during Aliyev’s latest visit to Berlin, Mr. Zahorka said, “Crackdown on human rights in Azerbaijan has been growing and getting worse and worse recently. Azerbaijan has been chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and within this term the worst crackdowns have been committed against activists, journalists, NGOs and other civil society representatives in Azerbaijan (take only the recent closure of Radio Liberty, or the arrests of every possible opposition figure). This first of all is happening because Azerbaijan is governed by an authoritarian president, in an authoritarian system, which tries to do everything to preserve its status and which does not at all fit into the European culture of discussion we have otherwise.”
At the same time he pointed to the fact that parallel to the crackdown within the country there is also an opposition forming itself outside of Azerbaijan, which the Azerbaijani censorship cannot prevent from speaking out against the regime.
Commenting about the “caviar diplomacy” of Azerbaijan in the Council of Europe and the European Parliament Mr. Zahorka said that such method of bringing individual members of parliament on their side is condemnable. “If you have to give a kilo of caviar for someone to vote in favour of something then this is a sign of weakness”, – he said, adding that “Azerbaijan is today the most corrupt country among the CoE member states, which is very clearly confirmed by several or all of the opposition movements of that country.”
Mr. Zahorka found himself in the black list of Azerbaijan after he visited the Nagorno Karabakh Republic as an observer of presidential elections in 2012. Even though not at all unhappy about being a persona non grata in Azerbaijan, he deplored such policies and said that his example is just one among many. He recalled for instance the case of former PACE rapporteur on Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan Mr. Strässer (now Commissioner for Human Rights for the German Government) who was simply barred from entering Azerbaijan to do his job. Unfortunately these incidents according to Mr. Zahorka also demonstrate the weakness of the Council of Europe, “which has a lot to catch up with possible sanctions to its member states if they step aside from their commitments”. Having said that he at the same time noted that the CoE clearly condemned Azerbaijan for the breach of a convention in the Ramil Safarov murder case after the prison “swap” Hungary-Azerbaijan – this was an overdue but a clear response to such practices.
In relation to sanctions as such Mr. Zahorka reminded that the CoE has three ways to apply sanctions – it can cut the right to vote (which was the case with Russia), suspend the membership or cancel it. The EU on the other hand is much more efficient in sanctioning because the EU, unlike the CoE, can apply economic sanctions (it has been seen with Russia). But according to Zahorka the EU is in somewhat difficult situation because it is trying to diversify from Russian oil and gas, in which Azerbaijan plays a role.
Having said that, however, Zahorka also noted that Azerbaijan should not count too much on the EU in this context, because the EU tries to diversify as fast as possible from all important primary raw materials (such as gas and oil) in order to avoid energy dependency on any one country. He mentioned that in autumn 2014 for instance wind energy produced only in Germany created more electricity than all the nuclear power plants created in Germany, that renewable energy like solar and wind energy are now in a real economic boost.
“We of course need energy, but at the same time we need less energy per capita, because for instance every fridge now uses less energy than its predecessors. We are going to end up in an energy mix including lots of decentralized energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, water energy and geothermal energy. For example, I live in a “passive house” – only with solar and geothermal energy plus electricity, without any oil and gas, an average house to live in. So altogether less energy will be needed, especially less fossil energy… Thus in this respect the importance of Azerbaijan as an energy provider to European countries is not as big as it is portrayed; it is actually fading away – slowly but surely,” said the former MEP.
In any case the EU has all the right to apply its soft power in pointing out the flaws in member countries as regards their commitments to European values, despite being good clients to them; in this respect “one of the primary objectives should be to bring Azerbaijan on the path of democracy,” he added.
Mr. Zahorka also welcomed the recently formed Nagorno Karabakh group in the European Parliament presided by Frank Engel from Luxemburg. “Any MEP has the right to open any informal group he wants on whatever issue he wants. We have various groups on big and small issues as well as on relations between certain countries, regions or even cities. So if we have a friendship group with Azerbaijan then why not have a friendship group with Nagorno Karabakh? Those MEPs involved in this group are interested in the exchange of information about Nagorno Karabakh because they see that there is a possible conflict there. As EU representatives they are interested in having peace at its borders and this group facilitates awareness on this important issue,” he noted.
At the same time Zahorka thinks that Nagorno Karabakh is not properly represented in Europe. “There are very good reasons for NKR to exist as a state; however there is an urgent need for its leadership to do a better PR abroad and to raise awareness about Nagorno Karabakh. History can play an important role in this, and this can be done without any caviar,” he said.
Having been an election observer in NKR in 2012, Mr. Zahorka noticed also that NK government makes a mistake by inviting representatives of right-wing extremists from Europe as election observers, some of whom are not taken serious in the EU. “The people of Nagorno Karabakh deserve the solidarity of European democrats, for the 2012 elections were indeed very clean, free and fair. The people of Azerbaijan would be happy if they had elections under these circumstances as in Karabakh at least once,” he said.
As for further relations between the EU and Armenia now that Armenia has joined the Customs Union, Hans-Jürgen Zahorka, who has been an active advocate of Armenia’s European integration, believes Armenia should make an overall strategic rethinking of its foreign policy before it becomes a full-fledged member of the Eurasian Union and should “place the relations with European Union on an orderly fundament”. Armenia can still develop its economic relations with the EU and facilitate the export to Europe of such products as Armenian wine, cognac, vodka, agricultural products such as fish, etc., as well as tourism, the full potential of which he believes is not quite reached. According to him possibilities regarding a more active role of the EU in the region, such as for instance the presence of EU peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh, also needs to be explored, given that the EU foreign and security policy is now gaining momentum.
After all, “Armenia is a part of Europe; it is attached to European values,” said Zahorka, “and in future it might have the potential of becoming a member of the EU.”