He is also one of the instigators and organizers of the current anti-Azerbaijani campaign in the Council of Europe.
Recently, upon hearing that the MP who voted to deny the credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation in PACE was banned from entering our country and would remain banned until the delegation’s credentials were restored, he threw yet another tantrum: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe cannot be blackmailed,” “political prisoners must be released,” “Azerbaijan must fully cooperate with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture,” and, of course, “there should be no entry bans.” It’s rather inconvenient for Mr. Schwabe, as he heads the Greens faction in PACE, yet he isn’t allowed to attend the COP29 climate summit.
Mr. Schwabe could be advised to Google something like the Vienna Convention. He might then understand that any state has the right to deny entry to any foreigner without explaining the reasons. The reasons for Herr Schwabe, however, were explained quite clearly.
But what’s more interesting is to look at Mr. Schwabe’s “track record” and recall the statements he has made about Azerbaijan and Turkey in recent years.
For instance, in 2018, Mr. Schwabe went so far as to attempt to legitimize the occupation junta in Khankendi. He introduced a personally drafted resolution to PACE titled “Unrestricted Access of Human Rights Monitoring Missions to the Territories of Council of Europe Member States, Including ‘Gray Zones,’” according to which human rights monitoring missions would be granted the right to visit occupied territories. In Armenia, this resolution caused great excitement, but it failed to legitimize the occupation.
During the 44-day Patriotic War, this figure solemnly declared: “Turkey’s intervention in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is unacceptable. All military units must be withdrawn, the fighting must stop, and both sides must come together for negotiations to resolve the conflict peacefully.” Let’s remind him: there were no Turkish military units on the front lines. Mr. Schwabe was simply promoting Armenian narratives. Moreover, it’s unclear why this Bundestag MP felt entitled to speak to Azerbaijan in such an ultimatum-like tone. It’s the type of situation where one might ask, “Do you think too highly of yourself?”
Then, on October 29, 2020, Mr. Schwabe delivered an emotional speech in the Bundestag: “In the end, this conflict cannot be resolved by force; territorial gains may be achieved, but this will not lead to pacification, including for Azerbaijan. Eventually, negotiations will have to take place under the OSCE.” Let’s remind him again: on September 27, 2020, Armenia initiated the promised “new war for new territories” declared by its defense minister. Their goal was to advance until pipelines were severed, Ganja was occupied, and they reached the Russian border. However, the war did not go according to plan, and Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive, systematically reclaiming its territories. So what “gains” was Schwabe talking about? How can a state “conquer” its own territories? Has the esteemed MP ever held a map in his hands? Does he not know that Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur are part of Azerbaijan? Moreover, in the same speech, Schwabe went so far as to claim that “the authoritarian Azerbaijani authorities started the war for domestic political reasons.” Accusations of authoritarianism are convenient: they can be easily “pinned” on any country, even when it has opposition parties, independent media, free internet, and so on. Herr Schwabe is simply reluctant to acknowledge that, first, Armenia started the war, and second, Azerbaijan was liberating its own territories. So, he has to twist his words, coming up with the most incredible verbal constructions, resulting in what can only be described as a parody.
Following Azerbaijan’s counter-terrorism operations in September 2023, Mr. Schwabe had another burst of activity. He had just been appointed as the Federal Government Commissioner for Freedom of Religion, and in October 2023, he stated that he was “concerned about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh” and feared that “Azerbaijan is trying to erase all traces of Armenian-Christian religion.” Schwabe referred to the destruction of religious monuments in the exclave of Nakhchivan, which, according to him, was “conquered” by Azerbaijan in 2020, where “places of Armenian-Christian life were destroyed.” It seems that Mr. Schwabe either wasn’t informed, or simply doesn’t care, that Nakhchivan wasn’t “conquered” in 2020, especially when he’s eager to throw dirt at Azerbaijan.
In the end, if one is going to invent the “destruction of Armenian-Christian life,” why not, for added effect, in accordance with the teachings of Dr. Goebbels, invent the “conquest of Nakhchivan” too? Moreover, what are these “places of Armenian-Christian life”? Armenia has claims on Nakhchivan, and they also push the myth of the “destruction of khachkars” there. Indeed, Armenia’s traditional “technology” for justifying territorial claims involves finding something in the desired lands that can be passed off as “ancient Armenian monuments.” If there’s nothing there, but they still want the territory, they resort to cries of “destruction of Armenian heritage.” When it comes to Karabakh, it’s worth reminding Mr. Schwabe of the “ancient Armenian church” built in 1996 on the site of a destroyed Azerbaijani family’s home in Lachin, or the “ancient chapel” built in 2017 in the occupied Jabrayil. But such “trivialities” don’t interest the MP. He’s not paid for that. It’s not even worth asking why the Commissioner for Freedom of Religion didn’t feel the need to react to the destruction of 64 out of 67 mosques, Muslim shrines, and even cemeteries in Karabakh. He’s only interested in “Christian heritage.”
On October 12, 2023, Schwabe set a new “anti-record.” This figure declared that Azerbaijan must do everything possible to ensure that Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh can return and gain access to their homes. In his far from authoritative opinion, Azerbaijan’s actions towards the local Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh constitute ethnic cleansing, as the Lachin corridor was closed and “people were made to understand that they have no future.”
One wonders if Mr. Schwabe was ever taught that lying is wrong, and being “caught in the act” is even worse. Azerbaijan, from the very beginning, declared that it considers the Armenians of Karabakh to be its citizens and that they would be granted all rights. What more do different Herren and Messieurs demand from our country? Furthermore, the Armenians themselves refused to return and live in Azerbaijan. If Schwabe wants to see what real “ethnic cleansing” looks like, he could look at footage documenting the occupation of Kalbajar, where professional terrorist Monte Melkonian announced to the residents that they had only a few hours to leave—without their belongings, on foot, through mountain passes. But in Herr Schwabe’s worldview, Armenians are always the “good ones,” while Azerbaijanis are always the “bad ones.”
Turkey is also “always bad” in Schwabe’s view. In May 2023, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the Turkish presidential election, contrary to the hopes of many, Schwabe threw a fit: “Turkey does not adhere to the basic principles of democratic elections!” Proof? Arguments? Such “trivialities” don’t bother the German politician. The fact that a second round was needed for the election, that the opposition had the opportunity to campaign, hold rallies, and access television—none of this counts as evidence of democratic elections. If Erdogan’s opponents had won, then it would have been a “triumph of democracy.”
Schwabe’s attitude towards Turkey is even more telling through other facts. In 2018, he expressed outrage on his personal website that Turkey had stripped HDP member Ertugrul Kurkcu of parliamentary immunity. The fact that Kurkcu is a seasoned terrorist and that his party is essentially the legal wing of Kurdish terrorist organizations doesn’t bother Schwabe. He wrote: “The judicial decision against Ertugrul Kurkcu is clearly politically motivated and incompatible with the requirements of a constitutional state. I demand the annulment of the sentence, the restoration of the fundamental principles of the rule of law in Turkey, and the observance of the legal standards of the Council of Europe, to which Turkey is committed as a member.” In Schwabe’s view, the “requirements of a constitutional state” apparently don’t include the right to defend territorial integrity and suppress separatism. Predictably, Schwabe also weighed in on the “Armenian genocide” issue. According to him, “It’s not about personal responsibility—how can there be personal responsibility for a genocide that happened 100 years ago?—but about Turkey’s collective responsibility and its responsibility to the Armenians.” The fact that no “genocide” ever took place doesn’t interest Schwabe. Turkey must be guilty simply because it is Turkey.
And it’s no longer surprising that Frank Schwabe was the main instigator behind the absurd film Am Abgrund about Azerbaijan, shown on ARD, about an “honest German MP” in a relationship with an Armenian woman from Baku, whose daughter lives in Baku, belongs to the LGBT community, fights corruption, and, of course, includes the “occupation of Karabakh” (according to Schwabe, Azerbaijan “occupied” its own territory), along with corrupt Europeans who turn a blind eye because Azerbaijan supplies valuable resources to Europe. Perhaps Schwabe hoped that his film would be cited as a historical document—the famous blunder of the New York Times, which once cited Franz Werfel’s novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh as a historical source, inspired many.
In conclusion, it seems that Mr. Schwabe simply uses any opportunity to harm Azerbaijan, whether through fake news, lies, or “artistic” films.
It would be interesting to know where Mr. Schwabe’s zeal comes from. However, the answer has long been known, as has the level of corruption in the European Parliament, PACE, and other institutions. The fact that ARD isn’t keen on making films about this changes little.
