As of: February 27, 2024, 8:17 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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The federal government is supporting projects that are intended to make autocratic Azerbaijan attractive to German companies.
Criticism of this comes from human rights activists.
Baku – After Azerbaijan's conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, there are virtually no Armenian people left in the area.
According to the Central Council of Armenians, there are fewer than 100 Armenians in the former “Artsakh”.
Over 100,000 people fled to Armenia after the enclave's surrender.
Most of them now live in the capital Yerevan and in the south of the country.
At the same time, the EU and Germany's relations with Azerbaijan are continuing to expand.
With the start of the Ukraine war two years ago, it quickly became clear that Europe had to become independent of energy supplies from Russia.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) described the country as an “important energy partner” during her visit in July 2022.
Gas deliveries to the EU should be expanded from eight billion cubic meters to up to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.
Federal government sees great opportunity for German economy
Germany also senses big contracts for its own economy and is supporting events with tax money.
On February 21st, an information event on the topic “Reconstruction of the water and wastewater infrastructure in the Karabakh region” took place in Baku.
The organizer was the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK Azerbaijan).
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets Ilham Aliyev at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, 2024 in Munich.
© IMAGO
“The event took place in combination with a 3-day study trip by German companies to Azerbaijan as part of the environmental protection export initiative, which is supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV),” the AHK Azerbaijan announced on its website.
Central Council of Armenians in Germany speaks of “hypocrisy”
The Central Council of Armenians in Germany (ZAD) is disappointed.
After all, these financial contributions would benefit an autocratic regime.
“It is extremely outrageous that taxpayers' money is being used for a conference in an authoritarian dictatorship like Azerbaijan.
Instead of clearly condemning Azerbaijan and demanding consequences, the federal government is rewarding an authoritarian country with new trade agreements.
This marks the height of double standards and hypocrisy,” said ZAD chairman Jonathan Spangenberg in an interview with
fr.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Spangenberg reminds us that dozens of Armenians are still being held as political prisoners in Baku.
In addition, ruler Ilham Aliyev refers to the Republic of Armenia as “West Azerbaijan” and threatens another large-scale military invasion.
There is fear among Armenians that they will be attacked.
There are repeated exchanges of fire on the border between the two countries.
“We therefore demand that the federal government, in particular Federal Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens), immediately clarify this scandal and immediately stop funding that is contributing to the further impairment of Armenian life.
At the same time, we demand the immediate termination of all trade relations with Azerbaijan,” said Spangenberg.
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Germany is involved in greenwashing human rights crimes
The human rights organization “International Society for Human Rights” (IGFM) also lacks understanding for the financing of this event with German taxpayers’ money.
“The Aliyev regime is using green energy projects to whitewash its international crimes against the Armenian people.
German companies must not participate
in the greenwashing of human rights crimes and Azerbaijan's genocidal Armenian policy; German tax money must not be misused for this purpose," criticized ISFM chairman Edgar Lamm to
fr.de.
Funds for German and European MPs from Baku
The government of Azerbaijan is known for repeatedly exerting influence on German and European MPs.
At the end of January, the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office brought charges against former Union politicians Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner.
They are accused of accepting money from the Azerbaijani regime.
In return, they are said to have shown accommodating voting behavior in the Council of Europe.
Amnesty criticizes human rights violations in Azerbaijan
Human rights violations are on the agenda in the Caucasian country.
“The authorities continued to subject civil society activists and independent media to arbitrary arrests and other forms of harassment,” writes the human rights organization Amnesty International on its website about the country.
“The right to freedom of association continued to be curtailed in 2022, and the work of human rights defenders and NGOs continued to be hampered by excessive restrictions in law and practice.”
(erpe)