– EPP National Council dismissed as election observer in Azerbaijan
The Zurich National Council was detained at the airport in Baku – as the only member of a Swiss delegation. He may have ended up on a blacklist.
Published: February 4, 2024, 9:53 a.m. Updated: February 4, 2024, 3:22 p.m
EPP National Councilor Nik Gugger at a media conference in the Federal Palace.
Photo: Simon Glauser
The authorities of Azerbaijan have refused entry to the Zurich EPP National Councilor and election observer Nik Gugger. Police confiscated his passport and prevented him from entering the country, as “SonntagsBlick” wrote. Gugger was therefore held at the airport for three hours. “What happened there is a scandal,” he told “SonntagsBlick” when he returned.
Gugger traveled to Azerbaijan as an official and accredited election observer on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). There he was supposed to observe the presidential election next Wednesday. The remaining members of the Swiss delegation and other observers were allowed to enter, according to the newspaper.
Gugger only received his passport back after a flight to Turkey. After an odyssey lasting over 30 hours, he finally landed back at Zurich Airport. It is a new level of escalation for a regime to disavow an observer mission to such an extent, says the 53-year-old, who has also carried out such OSCE missions in Russia and Moldova. “The situation was miserable,” says Gugger.
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) will intervene with the Azerbaijani authorities through diplomatic channels. Efforts were made to support Nik Gugger. The Swiss embassy in Baku is in contact with the Azerbaijani authorities, as the FDFA confirmed upon request.
Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis was informed about the diplomatic affront early in the morning. A possible consequence of the diplomatic scandal would be, for example, that the Azerbaijani ambassador would be summoned to Bern, says an EDA spokeswoman on SRF radio.
After his return, Gugger already spoke to the Azerbaijani ambassador on the phone. There will be a debate on Monday, he said at the request of Keystone-SDA.
Possibly blacklisted
It was not clear why Gugger’s entry was prevented. Gugger assumes that the whole thing has to do with his work as a Council of Europe. The regime in Baku had announced that no election observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would be accepted. Gugger could therefore have ended up on a blacklist.
The EPP National Council also campaigned for the Christian Armenians displaced by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. After a rally by the Switzerland-Armenia Society and the human rights organization Christian Solidarity International in Geneva in February 2023, Gugger was one of a group of eight parliamentarians who sharply criticized Azerbaijan at the Bundesplatz in Bern. The EPP National Council also personally protested to the Azerbaijani ambassador.
Protest in Bern: Nik Gugger (4th from right) with the national councilors Stefan Müller-Altermatt (center), Marc Jost (EVP), Andreas Gafner (EDU), Lilian Studer (EVP), Nicolas Walder (Greens), Denis de la Reussille (Greens) and Christine Badertscher (Greens).
Foto: Christian Solidarity International CSI
Gugger says he expects a clear answer to the denied entry during the discussion with the Azerbaijani ambassador on Monday. If possible, he would then like to travel to Baku again to be there when the election results were evaluated.
There is little doubt that President Aliyev, who has been in power since 2003, will win the elections again. According to the Democracy Index, the country ranks 134th out of 167.
Andreas Free has been an online site manager and news journalist in the Tamedia editorial team since 2017.More information@andreasfrei
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