Greek Members of European Parliament lead efforts to push sanctions against Azerbaijan

Greek Members of the European Parliament are leading initiatives to bring attention to Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh and Armenia in the European Parliament.

Stelios Kympouropoulos, an MEP for the centre-right New Democracy Party, on his initiative has the support of another 24 European Parliament colleagues to condemn Azerbaijan's aggression against the Armenians and to bring forth a discussion to implement sanctions against Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan's aggression and the conflict that has ignited in the Caucasus has shocked us and caused feelings of disgrace, especially due to extensive use of violence against civilians and Turkey's provocative intervention," Kympouropoulos wrote in a Facebook announcement.

"From the first moment the conflict broke out, I committed myself to doing my best to highlight the Azerbaijani aggression and the need for European intervention to restore peace," the 35-year-old continued.

"On my initiative, supported by a total of 24 colleagues from all parliamentary groups, an immediate question was submitted to the Council of Leaders and the EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Borrell asking:

➡️ What will the Council and the HR / BP Borrell do about the immediate ceasefire?
➡️ What kind of actions are the Council and BP Borrell willing to take by exerting all necessary pressure on the Azerbaijan government to stop hostilities and withdraw its troops?
➡️The EU is still Azerbaijan's largest export market and the second largest import market with a 51 % share of Azerbaijan's exports and 16 % share of Azerbaijan imports. Is the Council willing to draw up a list of imposing financial sanctions in Azerbaijan?"

He finished off his Facebook post by tagging colleagues supporting his initiative, including Eva Kaili from Greece's left-wing PASOK, Nikos Androulakis of PASOK, Alexis Georgoulis of Greece's left-wing SYRIZA, Dimitris Papadimoulis of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, Thodoris Zagorakis of New Democracy, George Kyrtsos of New Democracy, Dimitris Papadakis of Cyprus' centre-left Movement for Social Democracy, Stelios Kouloglou of SYRIZA, Elena Kountoura of New Democracy, Costas Mavrides of Cyprus' centrist Democratic Party, Loucas Fourlas of Cyprus' centre-right Democratic Rally and Lefteris Christoforou of the Democratic Rally.

This shows that all Greek and Cypriot MEP's, irrespective of their political ideologies, are united in condemning Azerbaijan's aggression against the Armenians and in calling for discussions for sanctions against Azerbaijan.

They were also joined by Lídia Pereira from Portugal, Xavier Bellamy from France, Ivan Štefanec from Slovakia, Fabio Massimo Castaldo from Italy, Ara-Kovacs Attila from Hungary, Dennis Radtke from Germany, Assita Kanko from Belgium, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić from Croatia, Elżbieta Kruk from Poland, Annie Schreijer from the Netherland and Aušra Maldeikienė from Lithuania.