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The mixture of Azerbaijani bribes and oil politics has conspired to keep the European institutions out of the disputed Karabakh region, and it is time for the EU to free itself from this corrupting grip and to stand for its values in the Caucasus,” argues Nicolas Tavitian, director of AGBU Europe, in an article published in Euroactive.com .

The author insists, Azerbaijan is once again heading for war at a time when its money has contributed to paralysing and silencing the European institutions, whose very legitimacy rests on their ability to promote peace on the European continent.

“It is widely recognised that the best way to defuse post-imperial conflicts such as that of Nagorno-Karabakh is to promote engagement and confidence-building, a policy that has been dubbed “engagement without recognition…But in Nagorno-Karabakh, the EU strictly adheres to Baku’s dangerous policy of blockading and isolating the local population. At Baku’s insistence, no EU official has travelled to NKR in the last 20 years and the EU has provided no assistance to its population, in spite of the hardship caused by the 1991-1994 war and a 29-year blockade,” wrote the author.

“With no European presence on the ground in NKR, the EU has no first-hand information to base its policy on. Horrifying war crimes committed during a 4-day war in 2016 have gone unrecorded, and the European institutions have not uttered a word on the subject. This is certain to embolden those who have committed them in the next round of fighting,” read the paper, adding: “Twenty-four years on, a mixture of Azerbaijani bribes and oil politics have conspired to keep the European institutions out of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is time for the EU to free itself from this corrupting grip, and to stand for its values in the Caucasus.”