Azerbaijan and the EU. Are Azerbaijan's oil and gas more important than European values? (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 2,4, , course: History of international Relations, language: English, abstract: This paper asks the following questions: How did this politically controversial country nevertheless become one of the EU's most important energy suppliers? Are Azerbaijan's oil and gas more important than European values?

Since the 19th century, Azerbaijan has been known worldwide as one of the most important oil suppliers. At the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan supplied the Russian Tsarist Empire with its oil, during the Second World War its successor, the USSR, and since the late 1990s Azerbaijan has aspired to play an important role in European energy security. Today, Azerbaijani oil and gas are of great importance to the EU and many other countries in the region.

After Azerbaijan joined the European Council in 2001, several agreements and contracts for the supply of natural gas and oil followed. A new pipeline was even built to transport the minerals to the EU more quickly and easily. This seems to be at odds with the current governance and human rights situation in the country. Again and again, major accusations have been made against the government: war crimes, persecution of political opposition, restrictions on media freedom and freedom of expression, and generally no democratic governance.