When Bahruz Samadov, a 30-year-old peace activist and PhD student, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison for high treason in Azerbaijan, many of his friends reportedly directed their outrage not just at the government that jailed him, but also at the European Union.
Samadov, who is said to have consistently rejected the charge as baseless, is believed to be facing one of the harshest penalties ever handed down to a critic of President Ilham Aliyev’s 21-year regime.
Observers noted that some critics accused the EU of turning a blind eye to Baku’s authoritarianism. One unnamed critic was quoted as saying that while the EU might continue to “flirt with Baku,” its silence on human rights violations would come at a cost.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had described Azerbaijan as a “key partner” in efforts to reduce the bloc’s dependence on Russian gas.
Since then, analysts said, President Aliyev had consolidated power by retaking the breakaway Karabakh region—triggering the exodus of its entire Armenian population—won a fifth term in an election widely criticised by observers, and intensified crackdowns on dissent and press freedom.
The European Parliament had urged the EU last year to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan and to reduce its dependency on the country’s gas exports. However, according to analysts and rights groups, senior EU foreign policy officials have continued to refrain from publicly criticising President Ilham Aliyev.
When EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas visited Baku in April, her comments highlighting the “great potential” for EU-Azerbaijan relations reportedly drew sharp backlash from Aliyev’s critics. At the time of her visit, at least 21 prominent journalists were said to be in detention in Azerbaijan.
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President Aliyev has defended the arrests by stating that they were necessary to protect the country’s media space from what he described as “external negative influences.” He also accused the journalists of receiving foreign funding illegally.
Observers noted that Aliyev has consistently accused international organisations of bias and interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs. Over the years, the Baku offices of global institutions such as the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the BBC have been ordered to close.
Commenting on the EU’s posture, Eldar Mamedov, a former Latvian diplomat and one-time foreign policy adviser to the Social Democrat group in the European Parliament, remarked that the bloc’s stance had effectively granted Aliyev “a free hand.” Mamedov observed that repression in Azerbaijan—including the detention of bloggers, activists, and opposition figures—had long strained EU-Azerbaijan relations, but claimed that this issue had largely disappeared from the EU agenda since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Union, however, has officially rejected such characterisations.