Spain’s Congress of Deputies Rejects Agreement with Azerbaijan, Cite Violence Against Armenia

MADRID — The Congress of Deputies of Spain, the lower house of the parliament, voted 174 to 132 on Thursday to reject an international agreement signed with the Republic of Azerbaijan, El Confidencial reports.

Spanish member of parliament Jon Inarritu said that the agreement, which was signed in Madrid in December 2021, involved exchange of classified information with Azerbaijan and protection of that information.

MP Jon Iñarritu (EH Bildu) called the agreement “nonsense,” especially now “when aggressor Azerbaijan has carried out an attack on Armenia in September, occupying several square kilometers of the territory of Armenia”.

“The Azerbaijani regime is corrupt, aggressor and intolerant to dissidents”, the lawmaker said, emphasizing the fact of violations of human rights and freedom of speech and the high number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

ERC MP Marta Rosique criticized the Government for its silence on aggression against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and condemned it for not having recognized “something as barbaric as the Armenian genocide.” “Instead, we find deals like this,” she lamented.

The parliamentary spokesman for the Basque Group (EAJ-PNV), Aitor Esteban, stressed that, “it is not so much the content” of the agreement, as the moment.”

Early last month the Congress approved an institutional declaration condemning the Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia that left more than 200 dead in September.