BAKU, Azerbaijan / WASHINGTON—Amid Aliyev-government repression and intimidation during the COP29 climate conference in Baku — with their personal safety on the line — Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congressional Armenian Caucus founding co-chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) championed the right of return of Artsakh’s ethnically cleansed Armenian population and advocated for Azerbaijan’s immediate release of Armenian hostages, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“We join with Armenians across our homeland and diaspora in thanking Senators Markey and Whitehouse, and of course, Armenian Caucus founding co-chair Frank Pallone for demanding the freedom of Armenian hostages and the return of Artsakh’s Armenians,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Baku’s attempt to hijack COP29 to greenwash its crimes have backfired — succeeding only in shining a global spotlight on the Aliyev regime’s corruption and pollution, aggression and repression.”
During press conferences in Baku and Washington D.C., Senators Whitehouse, Markey and Rep. Pallone pressed against Azerbaijani government and pro-Aliyev media efforts to greenwash the genocide of Artsakh’s 120,000 indigenous Armenian population and ongoing illegal imprisonment of 23 Armenian hostages and hundreds of Azerbaijani political prisoners.
During a November 16 COP29 press conference in Baku, when confronted by an Azerbaijani TV reporter about why the U.S. had not sanctioned Armenia, Senator Whitehouse replied, “Senator Markey and I support Armenia, both of us. We are very regretful that the dislocation of so many Armenians has taken place. To put it mildly, I’m far from convinced that Armenians are to blame for that. And I don’t want to dwell in the home of my hosts on human rights issues, but if that were to be the topic, I would not be very complimentary.”
Senator Markey was direct in his response: “We believe that the political prisoners should be released. We believe there should be a right of return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh. And we believe that there should be a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Sen. Markey: “We could not ignore the climate of fear and repression just outside the [COP29] conference walls.”
Upon their return from Baku on Monday, at a Capitol Hill press conference, Sen. Markey and Rep. Pallone detailed Azerbaijan’s worsening human rights violations broadly and their fear for their personal safety during the COP29 climate summit.
“COP29 in Azerbaijan offered a unique opportunity to promote clean energy and regional cooperation, but it is critical for the United States to address the significant challenges posed by ongoing human rights violations and unresolved territorial conflicts in Azerbaijan,” stated Sen. Markey. “We must draw attention to Azerbaijan’s unacceptable human rights record and promote positive change. We cannot be silent. We cannot ignore the hostile climate in which the conference is right now still taking place.”
In a meeting with Aliyev’s presidential advisor Hikmet Hajiyev, Sen. Markey was blunt: “The Azerbaijani government must immediately and unconditionally release all Armenian and Azeri political prisoners, guarantee the right of return for ethnic Armenian civilians to Nagorno-Karabakh, and negotiate in good faith a peace agreement with Armenia that protects regional peace and internationally agreed-upon borders.”
Rep. Pallone: “I thought there was going to be an assault on me […] that this is orchestrated by the [Aliyev] government.”
During the Washington, D.C. press conference, Rep. Pallone described the repeated and “synchronized” efforts by pro-Aliyev “protesters or thugs” at COP29 to assault the 30-year Congressional Armenian Caucus founding co-chair for his outspoken support for Artsakh self-determination and Armenia security. “If it wasn’t for the fact that U.S. Embassy-hired [bodyguards] protected me, I would have been in the hospital. And it was serious. I just want to be honest. It was very serious.” Sen. Markey concurred, noting, “Like Frank [Pallone], I felt I had to have a bodyguard with me at all times. Even in the lobby of the hotel, even going up to my room.”
Rep. Pallone described his pre-COP29 hopes that the Azerbaijani government would use the opportunity to release political prisoners. Instead, “a couple of days before the conference, President Aliyev started attacking the French, started attacking the Dutch to the point where they didn’t even come to the conference, and started cranking down even more, if that’s possible, on human rights and jailing more prisoners,” explained Rep. Pallone, who called Azerbaijan’s actions “incredibly stupid.”
Rep. Pallone, who was banned by Azerbaijani authorities from the congressional delegation meeting with President Aliyev, confirmed that his Republican and Democrat colleagues told the petrostate dictator, “You cannot be aggressive against Armenia. You have to come to a peace agreement. And it would involve releasing the prisoners,” and, predictably, President Aliyev “blamed Armenia for the war, he blamed Armenia for everything. […] this was not a situation where there was any reason to believe that President Aliyev is moving towards some kind of peaceful settlement, releasing the prisoners, anything of that nature.”
In a subsequent press statement, Rep. Pallone remarked, “Efforts to stifle myself and Senator Markey only strengthen my resolve to fight for accountability, reform and the dignity of those who have suffered under Azerbaijan’s oppressive regime. I will continue to fight for the release of the Armenian prisoners being held in Baku, the protection of Armenian territorial sovereignty and removal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenian land, and for a fair and lasting peace deal that finally brings calm to the region.”
In the month leading up to the COP29 climate conference, Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) led an ANCA-backed bicameral letter, cosigned by 60 Senate and House members, calling for U.S. leadership to hold Azerbaijan accountable for committing war crimes, taking hostages and illegally occupying Armenian territory. In the October 3 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. senators and representatives stated, “As COP29 approaches, we request that the State Department press Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the government of Azerbaijan to take tangible measures that support regional peace, uphold human rights protections, and adhere to international laws and norms.” They stressed that “despite overwhelming evidence and international condemnation, Azerbaijan has not faced meaningful consequences for the ethnic cleansing and other actions.”
The lawmakers went on to urge the State Department to “press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, to enable a more conducive environment for successful diplomacy at COP29.”
President Aliyev immediately rebuked the Pallone-Markey letter, rejecting what he called a “disgusting” letter from the U.S. lawmakers.
The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) is the premier global climate summit organized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The COP29 summit has been mired in controversy since Azerbaijan was announced as host at last year’s COP28 summit hosted in the UAE – making Azerbaijan the second petro-dictatorship with an egregious human rights record to host the conference in a row. Azerbaijan is one of the most fossil fuel-dependent economies in the world, with oil and gas comprising up to 90 percent of its exports and providing 60 percent of the government’s budget.
Baku was only granted the privilege of hosting COP29 after Armenia dropped its veto in exchange for the release of 32 Armenian POWs – one of many instances of Azerbaijan resorting to hostage diplomacy to impose demands on Armenia. To date, Azerbaijan continues to arbitrarily detain at least two dozen known Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners – with many still unaccounted for, given Azerbaijan’s refusal to acknowledge or confirm their status. International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have noted that these POWs have been subject to abuse and torture in detention – in brazen violation of international law.
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Markey, Whitehouse and Pallone have shown principles and courage, which is lacking in most politicians.
They should be lauded for travelling to Baku, risking their physical safety and subjected to hostile Azerbaijani protesters who were instigated by the Azerbaijani state, to hold a press conference in one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world, to clamor for the right of return for the dispossessed Armenians, for a just peace for Armenia and for the release of the imprisoned Armenians.
Even if the first objective might never happen and the second objective also uncertain, they managed to disrupt Azerbaijan’s attempt to gloss over its gross human rights violations during the COP29 and to spoil the Azerbaijani propaganda show of glorifying Azerbaijan to the outside world, which was the sole purpose of Azerbaijani dictator Aliyev for hosting the COP29 anyway.
It is undeniable that most politicians who pledge support for Armenians and Armenia, do this in order to win their votes during elections, and their pledges often remain empty words as they don’t follow them through and forget them until it’s election time again. Only a small minority of politicians are committed to the causes they truly believe in and to the pledges they make, even if it clashes with the interests of their parties or the interests of their countries, and also at the risk of their political careers.
As US government officials they have a degree of informal extraterritoriality and thus could openly say such things that others would be stopped and detained and deported for.
Oh, half truth Charlie, ignoring the US involvement in arming Azerbaijan
How convenient…
Yakub That’s the global arms trade for you in case you weren’t aware, guess the Kremlin had been keeping you in ignorance of its arms to Azerbaijan ready to be used against its legal ally Armenia! Pre Pashinyan government too, to boot lol. Tell us about how Russia has been a good friend to Azerbaijan in recent years such as the friendships agreement a couple of days before it invaded Ukraine of which Baku must have sensed was imminent. It also included recognition of eachother boundaries as per international norms and against factionalism and separatism within eachothers internationally recognised territory thus Russia was affirming that Arktash was part of Azerbaijan and not to support any opposition to this whilst stringing along the hoping against hope Armenians it was sympathetic.
@Charles,
Russia selling arms to our enemy was no secret and nothing new. They sold weapons in billions of dollars to our enemy during the former Armenian presidents with whom Russian leaders, Putin himself in particular, had very close ties and nothing happened until Pashinyan came to power with western financing and support as well as terrorist Turkey showing its ugly face in Armenia’s backyard from where it was absent for over a century. Russia while selling weapons to our enemy at high market prices was supplying Armenia weapons at cost or for free practically. Russian weapon transfers and sales to Armenia froze more or less because of none other than Pashinyan who was viewed by Russia with suspicion. I trust neither the West nor Russia when it comes to making decisions for Armenia but it should be obvious to everyone by now that the ultimate goal of the West is to force Russia out of the region and that’s where the problems begin.
Why didn’t Putin for thirty years ever make his feelings known and views public in regards to Artsakh until, once again, Pashinyan came to power? Obviously because he was skeptical of him and did not trust him, he did not approve of him and his foreign policies, saw a western connection there, or all of the above. Even then when Putin said whatever he said about Artsakh, talking about internationally recognized boundaries, affirming Artsakh as part of enemy artificial state as you say, is ludicrous and no one in his right mind can take that seriously while Russia itself had long before breached the internationally recognized boundaries of Georgia and Ukraine and had seized territory.
I believe Putin’s statement on Artsakh was pro Russian and not pro Azerbaijani. Putin as a former KGB foreign intelligence officer in Soviet times regarded the collapse of the Soviet Union as the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. Ever since the Soviet collapse, Putin has been planning to resurrect the now-defunct Soviet empire and under such plan Artsakh would once again find its place back under Azerbaijani occupation. As bitter as it is for the Armenians with deep feelings of betrayal by Russia, in Putin’s reality this is not a pro Azerbaijani move on Russia’s behalf but a pro Russian one in order to restore Soviet era boundaries and to keep Azerbaijan in the Russian orbit especially when Azerbaijan’s closest ally today is NATO member terrorist Turkey. Soon after becoming the Russian president post Soviet collapse he invaded Georgia’s sovereign territory in 2008 seizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Six years later in 2014 he invaded Ukraine and revealed his future plan for Ukraine which continues to this day. In both of these cases the West was meddling in the politics of these two countries. Fast forward to 2018 regime change in Armenia, falsely portrayed as popular revolution, and the rest is history!
Ararat,
this is true although the tie in meant that Armenia was restricted in what NATO members could sell Armenia, perhaps this didn’t matter if Armenia had the advantage as it had after 1994 however in 2020 this was clearly no longer the case. Thus questions previously theoretical and moot became pertinent. With the end of the Soviet Union Russia position could be described as correct vis a vis the Alma Atla protocol and the UN charter and Helsinki final act. However under Putin began to differ somewhat from what it still preached to what it practiced it’s aggressive support for South Ossetia and abhkasia regarding Georgia in 2008. It’s subsequent grab of Crimea in 2014 citing the unconstitutional transfer to Ukrainian SSR without the legal referendum to confirm. Perhaps such actions gulled Armenians to assume that Russia on this basis was sympathetic to Arktash of which it was ambiguous until Pashinyan took office and switched to legalistic stance on the issue. I concur that Putin was being pro Russian not necessarily pro Armenian nor Azeri and the Armenians clamour to unify Arktash with Armenian SSR showed the fallacy of the Soviet ethos that SSR boundaries were merely technical in their international socialist brotherhood of alledged class struggle of we all know this was a gargantuan fraud but at the time all within had to pretend this to be true. Thus the Armenian desire to unify upset the Soviet myth so beloved by Putin of course there were many other issues that were straining the viability of the USSR and the issue in itself alone wouldn’t have been severe brought down the USSR but clearly Putin has come to see Arktash as an enemy of ideals he is attached to. Yes the west has employed it’s own agenda to further it’s interests Armenia, Georgia have been victims of this but clearly Ukraine has by a long way!
THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL ARMENIANS WILL BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO ARTSAKH WITHOUT MILITARY FORCE AND PROTECTION BY ANOTHER COUNTRY’S MILITARY WHICH NO COUNTRY IS GOING TO DO. WHY THE HELL SHOULD THEY? ARTSAKH IS DEAD. PERIOD. GAME OVER. MOVE ON. FOCUS ON WHAT’S LEFT OF ARMENIA THAT IS CIRCLING DOWN THE DRAIN THAT ARMENIANS CAN’T EVEN PROPERLY GOVERN, LET ALONE ARTSAKH! HOW ABOUT REOCCUPYING CILICIA? WESTERN ARMENIA? THE MOON! DIASPORA ARMENIANS DO NOT WANT TO MOVE TO ARMENIA TO LIVE THERE BECAUSE IT IS STILL MISMANAGED, WEAK, CORRUPT. WAKE UP AND START LIVING IN REALITY BECAUSE FAIRY TALE OF ARMENIANS EVER MOVING BACK TO ARTSAKH OR ARTSAKH BEING AN INDEPENDENT NATION CAPABLE OF SURVIVING ON ITS OWN IS OVER.
Hmm im sure the Turks are shaking in their boots, oh no one more spineless Congressmen condemning Turkey and they’ll surrender 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣