In November 2024, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Baku, where key issues will be discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We, the undersigned organizations of the civil society of the Republic of Armenia, emphasize the importance of civil society’s participation in international processes concerning climate change. However, being unable to participate in COP29 in Baku due to Azerbaijan\u2019s anti-Armenian policies, we are issuing this statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision to hold COP29 in Baku was problematic in itself, considering not only the fact that such an event is being held in a country with a fossil fuel-based economy but also the reality that this state uses profits from these resources to expand military aggression and blatantly violate international law. This includes the military aggression launched in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020, accompanied by grave war crimes, the blockade and starvation of over 100,000 Armenians for more than nine months, the constant terrorizing of the population, the military attack in September 2023, the forced displacement of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population, and the complete ethnic cleansing, as well as military attacks on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and the occupation of certain areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While pretending to engage in peace negotiations with Armenia, the Azerbaijani authorities continue the decades-long state-level anti-Armenian propaganda and the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage and traces in the territories under their control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By occupying strategic heights in the sovereign territory of Armenia, Azerbaijan has gained control over roads and settlements, directly threatening the safety of the civilian population and facilitating its access to Armenia\u2019s natural resources, including mines, forests, and water sources. Certain forests (\u201cShikahogh\u201d State Reserve and \u201cPlane Grove\u201d Sanctuary) and water basins (Jermuk Hydrological Reserve and Sev Lakes) are under the control of Azerbaijani military forces and are entirely inaccessible to the local population of those areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For months, Azerbaijan has been posing new demands to Armenia as preconditions for signing a peace agreement, and recently it refused to sign an agreement on already agreed-upon issues. Simultaneously, it intensified its demand to remove the European Union’s civilian monitoring mission from Armenia, which essentially confirms that this country has no intention of achieving peace, that the so-called \u201cPeace COP\u201d was a fa\u00e7ade, and that COP29 may be followed by another war in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Azerbaijan continues to hold 23 ethnic Armenians, including prisoners of war and civilians, who were captured at various times since 2020. Among them are former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, whom Azerbaijan uses as bargaining chips to extract concessions from Armenia, such as Armenia’s agreement to host COP29 in Azerbaijan. The captured Armenians are accused or convicted of fabricated crimes, with gross violations of their right to a fair trial. Reports from the UN Committee against Torture<\/a> and Human Rights Watch<\/a> testify to the cruel treatment, torture, and severe violations of international humanitarian law and human rights against Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan. Their immediate release and return to Armenia are urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to documented data from human rights defenders, during the armed conflicts of 2020-2023, at least 80 more Armenians were captured in Azerbaijan, with Azerbaijani authorities providing no information on their whereabouts. Around 200 individuals are also missing, but international or Armenian search teams have not been granted access to recover the remains of the deceased for their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n