The federal NDP and the Bloc Québécois are calling on the Trudeau government to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan in response to its military incursion into Nagorno-Karabakh last week — an event that has driven close to 30,000 of the disputed enclave's ethnic Armenians to neighbouring Armenia,
CBC News reports.
"We recognize that Canada doesn't play a huge role in this [geographical] area. But this is something we can do, this is something the Canadian government can do, to express our dismay, to express that we are seeing civilians being targeted," Heather McPherson, the NDP's foreign affairs critic, told CBC News.
She and NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice last week co-authored a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly pushing for sanctions.
"As you know, there is no military solution to this conflict. Only diplomatic pressure and comprehensive dialogue will result in a long-term solution," the MPs wrote, adding the government should consider "targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani individuals and entities responsible for violations of international law and human rights abuses in the region."
"Canada's sanctions regime has its faults," said Bloc Québécois foreign affairs critic Stéphane Bergeron during a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday. "But it is an efficient way to place pressure on foreign governments.
"What are we waiting for to sanction Azerbaijan for its inadmissible behaviour toward not only Armenia but its civilian population of Nagorno Karabakh?"
About a fourth of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who consider Nagorno-Karabakh their ancestral home have fled the region since last week.
