There is a well-known quote by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
This quote perfectly describes what happened in the PACE yesterday. The top brass decided to leave the last word to themselves, as if they were in a neighborhood squabble, and have the vote after all to restrict the credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation.
But this is not only about crying over the spilt milk. 76 deputies voted in favor of not ratifying the credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation, 10 voted against, and four abstained. The provocative proposal was fervently supported by the delegates of Armenia, Austria (5 out of 6), some delegations voted not in full (one out of 18 from Great Britain, for example, and 4 out of 18 from Germany). Türkiye’s delegation voted against (except for the representative of the pro-Kurdish HDP). And the delegations from Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, and Estonia abstained from voting.
Once again: among those who left the room were the delegations of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.
We could come up with an explanation if we wished: say, Kyiv, Tbilisi and Chisinau are counting on the support of European leaders and do not want to go against their opinion. And it is quite possible that this is the reasoning that the leaders of these delegations proceeded from, genuinely believing they had found the “best” way out.
Of course, the representative of Ukraine, Oleksii Goncharenko, deserves great respect for saying from the tribune that “this institution is treating Azerbaijan very harshly. What is the reason for this? Azerbaijan has been a member of the Council of Europe since 2001. Since then, the situation in Azerbaijan has not become worse. The only thing that has changed is that the republic has restored its territorial integrity within its legal borders.” But this does not disallow questions to the others, either in the personal or in the “state-to-state” dimension.
First, all three countries together with Azerbaijan are members of GUAM. And they should coordinate their actions on international platforms. In this situation, Azerbaijan was entitled to expect more integrity from the delegates of all three countries. It does not matter whether their votes would have been enough to turn the tide of the voting: this is a case when one’s own position is important. The one expressed, for example, by the Turkish delegation.
Most importantly, all these three countries are already facing violations of their own territorial integrity and occupation of their territories. Georgia cannot stop the “stalling aggression”, and Ukraine is in the midst of a real large-scale war. These PACE delegates could not fail to realize that Azerbaijan was being “punished” precisely for restoring its territorial integrity and kicking out the occupiers.
Did the representatives of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova simply not figure out that this issue concerns them as well? Did they really think that the “shadow top” of PACE, which is ready to punish Azerbaijan, would treat their borders and territories with more respect? That they will not choose to “save the Kremlin’s face”, “look for a peaceful way out” and will not resort to Daladier-style diplomacy?
And here, perhaps, not only relations with Azerbaijan are important for these countries. Their, shall we say, “cautious and balanced position” turned out to be an unintentional demonstration that these countries do not take much of a principled position on the issues of respect for borders and territorial integrity.
This experience may well be extended to their borders as well. And so, the price of “caution” in PACE may prove to be very high.
