Brussels – While EU heads of state and government are gathered in Brussels for the last European summit of the year, in Strasbourg, MEPs conclude a plenary session, the climax of which was the speech of Georgia’s outgoing president, Salomé Zourabichvili, amid Tbilisi’s dramatic democratic backsliding and its rapprochement with Moscow. However, the Caucasus and Russian influence are the common thread that links the three resolutions adopted today (Dec. 19) by the European Parliament, which turn the spotlight on human rights violations in Crimea, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan.
The Ukrainian territory of Crimea has entered its 11th year of illegal Russian occupation with over a decade of “significant human rights violations,” particularly against Crimean Tatars (a Turkic ethnic group native to the Black Sea peninsula), Ukrainians, and other ethnic minorities. In Sevastopol, Russia has imprisoned journalists, civil society activists, and human rights defenders, whose “immediate and unconditional release” the European Parliament calls for.
In the resolution, adopted with 446 votes in favor, 25 against, and 51 abstentions, MEPs called on the international community to persist in its policy of non-recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea and to strengthen sanctions against natural and legal persons involved in the illegal annexation.
The European Parliament then turned its attention to the region between the Black and Caspian Seas, to the Azerbaijan of authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev. With 434 votes in favor, 30 against, and 89 abstentions, MEPs adopted a second resolution condemning “the continued human rights violations in the country” and urging Azerbaijani authorities to “immediately end the repression of all dissident groups.” Aliyev — particularly before last February’s presidential election, which he won with 94 percent of the vote — intensified the crackdown on journalists, political activists, and human rights defenders, who were prosecuted and arrested on “trumped-up and politically motivated charges.”
Among them is Gubad Ibadoghlu, president of the Movement for Democracy and Prosperity, who was jailed with his wife in July 2023 and transferred to house arrest in April 2024. Ibadoghlu was nominated by the Green Group in the European Parliament for the Sakharov Prize 2024 for freedom of thought. However, he was not allowed to attend the award ceremony in Strasbourg or to connect from remote. In the resolution, MEPs demand that Baku “immediately lift the travel ban” and the charges against him.
According to the European Parliament, Brussels is ignoring severe human rights violations in Baku because Azerbaijan is at the center of the EU’s energy diversification policy after the clean cut from Russian sources. However, “any EU-Azerbaijan partnership agreement, including on energy, must be strongly conditional on respect for fundamental rights and the release of all political prisoners,” reads the resolution adopted today.
Finally, Strasbourg adopted a third resolution on another former Soviet republic, Kyrgyzstan. In the remote Central Asian country, President Sadyr Zhaparov has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on civil society. Arrests of journalists, bloggers, and civil society groups culminated in the arrest of opposition leader Temirlan Sultanbekov. MEPs expressed “grave concern” over the democratic backsliding in Kyrgyzstan and attacks on media freedom, freedom of expression, and political opposition.
The resolution, adopted by a vote of 492 in favor, 28 against, and 41 abstentions, stresses that Kyrgyzstan should abide by the democratic standards agreed under the enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement with the EU. It also urges the release “as soon as possible” of Sultanbekov and other officials of the country’s Social Democratic Party. As in Georgia, the government has imposed a Russian-style law on “foreign representatives” and one on “false information,” which allows it to tighten the screws on dissent by easily evoking the specter of national security. In addition to withdrawing the laws, the European Parliament calls on Kyrgyz authorities to “not help” Moscow “circumvent sanctions imposed on Russia” by the West.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
