Eco-activist Greta Thunberg decried the “hypocrisy” of the world in permitting Azerbaijan to host the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) during her recent visit to Armenia. The COP29 conference in Azerbaijan has become a focal point of criticism, not only for its environmental agenda but also due to Azerbaijan’s failures to protect human rights and the environment.
On November 14, 2024, Thunberg was a special guest at “Impact of Azerbaijan’s Aggression on Human Rights and Environmental Protection,” a conference held at the American University of Armenia that brought together experts to discuss the consequences of Azerbaijan’s policies on the Armenians of Artsakh and the environment. The conference highlighted the stark contradictions between Azerbaijan’s “greenwashing” efforts and its widespread human rights violations.
“It is nauseating to see the hypocrisy and double standards of holding a climate-focused conference in Azerbaijan,” Thunberg declared.
When asked why she was not attending the COP29 summit in Baku, she responded, “Why am I not at COP29? The agendas of us climate activists and those of the summit organizers are entirely different. Azerbaijan is responsible for ethnic cleansing, so it is nauseating to witness the hypocrisy of hosting this conference there. This is an extreme manifestation of hypocrisy and double standards. Not only does Azerbaijan commit horrific crimes with impunity, but it also receives a platform on the world stage to legitimize gross human rights violations through ‘greenwashing’ and ethnic cleansing. The world remains silent to all of this. This is not an isolated case. We must stop pretending that it is normal to hold a climate conference in a country where repression is rampant. Azerbaijani activists say they feel as though they are living in a prison, constantly subjected to repression.”
Addressing the crimes committed against the Armenian population of Artsakh, Thunberg added, “The torture, forced displacement, captives, hostages, ethnic cleansing, as well as the physical and psychological violence that people have endured, are absolutely unacceptable. The world remains silent about all of this and allows Azerbaijan to continue its ‘greenwashing’ practices.”
Panelist Anna Melikyan, a lawyer from the NGO Protection of Rights Without Borders, said that Azerbaijan is engaged in “greenwashing” at COP29 while trying to present its aggression as a “peace process.”
“Azerbaijan showcases its plans for green energy production in so-called ‘liberated’ territories, ignoring the fact that these areas have been depopulated of their indigenous inhabitants through ethnic cleansing. This narrative is designed to obscure the reality from the international community,” Melikyan stated.
She recalled that fact-finding missions conducted after the 2020 war in Artsakh documented violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war.
“These crimes were not only committed without fear of accountability but also used as tools of intimidation to force villagers to flee and discourage resistance against armed forces,” Melikyan said, adding that repatriated Armenian prisoners have testified to torture and inhumane treatment.
Ara Ghazaryan, an expert in international law, addressed the issue of the forcibly displaced population of Artsakh and their right to return to their homes.
“The right of return must be indisputable, yet Azerbaijan attempts to frame it as a bilateral demand, arguing that Azerbaijanis should also return to Armenia. However, unlike the Armenian side, which argues within the framework of law and human rights, Azerbaijan continues to justify its policies based on the outcomes of past wars. Nevertheless, these counter arguments cannot negate the right of Artsakh’s population to return,” Ghazaryan said.
Panelists noted that the international community’s silence not only fails to prevent Azerbaijan’s crimes but also enables their continuation. Platforms like COP29 allow Azerbaijan the opportunity to rehabilitate its international image while masking gross human rights violations.
The message of the conference was clear: the issues of environmental and human rights protection are inseparable, and aggression and ethnic cleansing should not be tolerated, even under the guise of a “green agenda.”
The next day on November 15, Thunberg took part in a demonstration titled “Stop Greenwashing Genocide!” in front of the United Nations office in Yerevan. The protesters stated that the conference legitimizes the Azerbaijani regime’s genocidal actions and human rights violations.
Thunberg addressed the gathering, expressing her surprise that the climate summit is being held in Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil state that does not respect fundamental human rights. She stated that Azerbaijan’s hands are stained with blood, both from its oppression of its own people and its ethnic cleansing and genocidal actions in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Thunberg called the ongoing suffering, forced displacement and continued physical and psychological violence facing Armenians unacceptable. She also emphasized that Azerbaijan, which heavily relies on fossil fuels, intends to expand its extraction activities.
“It is unacceptable for such a country to engage in ethnic cleansing and not be held accountable for it,” Thunberg stated, highlighting that the violence is met not only with the world’s silence but also a global platform for Azerbaijan to “greenwash” its abuses.
Defining climate justice as justice for all, Thunberg stated that there can be no climate justice without social justice. “We call on those who are capable to speak up about this and demand justice for all the victims,” she said, calling on international media and those in positions of power to visit the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan to witness their inhumane conditions and demand the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of war.
Margarita Karamyan, another protest organizer and a displaced person from Hadrut, Artsakh, stated that holding COP29 in Baku is a failure of global politics. “A country that has committed genocide and ethnic cleansing against 150,000 Artsakh Armenians cannot represent the civilized world,” she said, adding that in her hometown, Azerbaijanis have committed horrific crimes.
Karamyan emphasized that Azerbaijan has taken control of Artsakh’s nature, land, forests, pastures and water resources. “Today, terrorists live in the homes of the people of Artsakh. By killing Armenian children and the elderly, Azerbaijan seeks to close the world’s eyes,” she said.
Human rights defender Nina Karapetyants said that the international institutions created by humanity have tragically failed, as they did not act when the genocide against the Armenians of Artsakh took place. She criticized these institutions for participating in a climate summit in a country responsible for genocide. “The U.N. Secretary-General, who has the opportunity and responsibility to prevent genocides, is going to Baku to participate in such events,” Karapetyants said, stressing that all participants will be held accountable for future genocides.
Other protesters highlighted the disastrous blockade of Artsakh, when Azerbaijani so-called “eco-activists” blocked the only road connecting Artsakh and Armenia and subjected the region to a humanitarian crisis.
At the conclusion of the protest, the organizers delivered a letter to the U.N. Armenia office urging the U.N. to take action and condemn Azerbaijan’s crimes. “The U.N. has all the necessary mechanisms to ensure peace and justice in the region. We call on you to condemn Azerbaijan for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and environmental damage,” the letter stated.
Anna Harutyunyan
Latest posts by Anna Harutyunyan (see all)
- Surviving four wars: Yerjanik Hayrapetyan and her unyielding spirit - November 19, 2024
- Greta Thunberg visits Armenia, denounces Azerbaijan’s crimes - November 18, 2024
- The vital role of contemporary Armenian literature - October 9, 2024
“How dare you”
Whilst her presence won’t transform things particularly being a popular figure does help as global indifference has been consistent issue for Armenia and as she is presumably banned from Azerbaijan it shows to the world their lack acceptance of dissent. How did she reach Georgia in order to reach Armenia given her self ban on flying and unlikely to have travelled via Russia whom she has criticised over it’s war on Ukraine anyway?
If by “global indifference” you mean most of the western world is busy conducting a proxy war on Russia via Ukraine and fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian and the rest, such as the UK and the UK’s British Petroleum (BP), are protecting their multi-billion dollar assets in the Azerbaijani terrorist cesspool for the acquisition of highly-sought precious metals in metal mines and in the Caspian oil & gas exploration, infrastructure and exportation to the energy-hungry Europe, they you are right!
Greta Thunberg is not saying things the world does not already know. The question is why were those Azerbaijani government agents and criminals in plain clothes placed strategically on the Berdzor “Lachin” corridor pre Artsakh population starvation, followed by invasion, period protesting air pollution while similar protests in Baku were met with police brutality and arrests and that Thunberg is denied the same right and banned from entering the Azerbaijani terrorist cesspool. Let’s think about the real issues here instead of pondering about what a young Swedish environmentalist on Azerbaijani blacklist can do for the Armenian Cause!
Greta may say things already known but has the power of publicity to the wider world in a way that others can’t thus even if it doesn’t change anything she does expose Azerbaijan as authoritarian in the way that Armenian who would be seen as biased in this context and even dissenting Azeri activists can’t.
Pre 2020 conflict the issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan didn’t get much attention even when it did it was nothing like flare ups in the Levant. Similarly in the 1991 – 94 Arktash conflict gained only a fraction of the global attention the contemporary Bosnia conflict gained. It’s just how it is. Yes Russia is in a proxy war in Ukraine eventually the Ukrainians will realise that they have been played by the west of which they are so keen to be part of and the Europe they believe in, faded away demographically and morally and socially since the end of the cold war. Indeed the said environment activists used to block the lachin corridor were so blatantly a bogus rent a mob.
As the pro Russian fools need reminding there was no Berlin airlift nor Sarajevo siege relief for Arktash from it’s Russian protectors who actually turned out to be smoothing over the process of Azerbaijan gaining control and indeed Arktash was collateral to Azerbaijan and Turkey for Russia which by 2020 realised despite the distraction of coronavirus was set for a violent clash of interests and hence needed to give something to Azerbaijan and Turkey to satiate them in the event of its pariah status upon attacking Ukraine. Indeed Russia with its proposed constitution of 2017 for Syria included forbiding the use of force to settle international disputes yet Russia with no sense of irony would use force to seek to settle what negotiations couldn’t attain.