{"id":34906,"date":"2024-10-25T09:11:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T07:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=34906"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:42:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:42:35","slug":"should-a-climate-destroying-dictatorship-host-a-climate-saving-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/should-a-climate-destroying-dictatorship-host-a-climate-saving-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Should a Climate-Destroying Dictatorship Host a Climate-Saving Conference?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Civilized nations should boycott this year\u2019s UN Climate Conference, and sanction its genocidal, ecocidal host regime.<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lucine Kasbarian<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The petro-dictatorship of Azerbaijan has been <\/span>awarded hosting honors<\/span><\/a> of this year\u2019s United Nations Climate Conference, November 11-22, also known as COP29. This is the third year in a row that a<\/span> petrostate<\/span><\/a> has been authorized to oversee the meeting, <\/span>after Egypt<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>United Arab Emirates.<\/span><\/a> \u00a0Only this time, a most dangerous, pompous regime is at the helm. <\/span>Azerbaijan ranks 154 out of 180 countries on <\/span>Transparency International\u2019s Country Corruption Index. <\/span><\/a>It also <\/span>ranks <\/span>151st out of 180 countries<\/span><\/a> on<\/span> Reporters Without Borders\u2019 Press Freedom Index.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

As delegates <\/span>who are not boycotting this event<\/span><\/a> prepare to attend talks in Baku, the international community has a precious opportunity to shine a spotlight on <\/span>Azerbaijan\u2019s unsuitability<\/span><\/a> as COP29 host and ecological role model. Instead, the world should shun it as a pariah state that is in <\/span>open violation of legally binding international court orders<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>impose<\/span><\/a> sanctions<\/span><\/a> upon it.<\/span><\/p>\n

COP29 is another \u201citem\u201d in Baku’s propaganda basket to whitewash\/<\/span>Greenwash<\/span><\/a> its image. Other international events the corrupt Aliyev regime has used to bolster its image include <\/span>Songwashing<\/span><\/a> (inviting celebrity <\/span>performers<\/span><\/a>), <\/span>Sportswashing<\/span><\/a> (the Soccer EuroCup), <\/span>Carwashing<\/span><\/a> (Formula1 racing), <\/span>Clotheswashing<\/span><\/a> (Fashion Week) and, of course, <\/span>Brainwashing<\/span><\/a> (propaganda).<\/span><\/p>\n

Corporate media,<\/span><\/a> lobbyists<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>complicit actors on the global stage<\/span><\/a> may do their level best to downplay or even misinform the public about the <\/span>governmental depravities<\/span><\/a> of Baku. Nevertheless, this totalitarian state\u2019s <\/span>gross violations of international law<\/span><\/a> come through loud and clear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Azerbaijan\u2019s <\/span>warmongering<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>land-grabbing in the South Caucasus,<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>utter disregard<\/span><\/a> for treaties and agreements; its <\/span>abysmal human rights record; <\/span><\/a>its <\/span>demolition of Armenian cultural heritage<\/span><\/a> to eliminate the <\/span>ancient Armenian presence<\/span><\/a> on the ground; its destructive <\/span>actions against the very natural environment it misappropriates,<\/span><\/a> including its <\/span>doubling down on fossil fuel and gas production<\/span><\/a> flouting pledges to the contrary;<\/span> its brutal repressions of free speech, assembly and peace activism,<\/span><\/a> torture of dissenters,<\/span><\/a> political prisoners<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>unlawfully detained civilians<\/span><\/a>;<\/span> its <\/span>ruling nepotism and kleptocracy<\/span><\/a> which relies on <\/span>caviar diplomacy lobbying strategies,<\/span><\/a> money laundering machinations<\/span><\/a> and implementation of <\/span>institutionalized anti-Armenian hatred<\/span><\/a> to fuel its political engine \u2014 all disqualify it from basking in the international exposure that <\/span>hosting COP29<\/span><\/a> can provide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Bragging
Bragging Rights (cartoon by Lucine Kasbarian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Time and again, <\/span>media reports<\/span><\/a> show us that endorsing free speech or environmentalism is not a sincere objective of the Aliyev regime. Any Azeri citizen who freely exercises his\/her <\/span>rights as a journalist<\/span><\/a> or dares to protest the <\/span>lack of free expression,<\/span><\/a> the exploitation of natural resources that results in industrial waste <\/span>poisoning lakes,<\/span><\/a> thickly <\/span>polluting the air,<\/span><\/a> or threatening the landscape may be <\/span>harassed, beaten,<\/span><\/a> arrested or worse<\/span><\/a>. Apparently, the only thing the citizens of Azerbaijan are allowed to express <\/span>is hatred of Armenians.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

This autumn marks the <\/span>one-year anniversary of the Azeri-led obliteration<\/span><\/a> of the ancient, continuous Armenian presence on the indigenous Armenian territory of Artsakh (aka Nagorno Karabakh), <\/span>one of the fifteen provinces of medieval Armenia.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Artsakh, which has never before been under the control of an independent Azerbaijani state, was in 2023 <\/span>forcibly emptied<\/span><\/a> of its native inhabitants <\/span>on the world\u2019s watch.<\/span><\/a> In the 1920s, Soviet dictator Stalin placed the historically Armenian territory of Artsakh (called an autonomous oblast), under the administrative control of Soviet Azerbaijan <\/span>to sweeten his relationship with Turkish dictator Ataturk<\/span><\/a> and divide and conquer the peoples of the Union. (The Soviets also <\/span>gave Armenian Nakhichevan away to Azerbaijan.)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Artsakh people,<\/span> by referendum, unanimously elected to rejoin Armenia proper<\/span><\/a>. Azerbaijan responded with <\/span>brutal pogroms of Armenians<\/span><\/a> living in Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad and Maragha. A bloody war ensued and in 1994, the independent Armenian republic of Artsakh was<\/span> established and governed itself peacefully for nearly 30 years. <\/span><\/a>\u00a0During that period, Azerbaijan bulked up on sophisticated weaponry from <\/span>Turkey, Russia, and Israel<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Azerbaijan also imported mercenary jihadists from Turkey, Syria and Pakistan<\/span><\/a> before <\/span>launching an invasion of Artsakh in 2020<\/span><\/a>. For 44 days, Armenians virtually <\/span>fought alone and endured many ISIS style beheadings, rapes, mutilations, savage beatings<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>torture porn<\/span><\/a> before Russia brokered a ceasefire which saw the bulk of Artsakh go under Azeri occupation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Per a November 9, 2020 <\/span>tri-lateral ceasefire agreement,<\/span><\/a> Russian peacekeepers were installed along the borders of what remained of Armenian Artsakh. However, these troops did nothing to prevent Azerbaijan from flouting the legally-binding agreements. Imposing a blind eye, Russia permitted Azerbaijan to <\/span>amass ruffians<\/span><\/a> on the only transport route connecting Artsakh to Armenia and impose a nine-month starvation siege.<\/span><\/p>\n

Armenian <\/span>pleas to the US, <\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>the West,<\/span><\/a> the <\/span>United Nations<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>international courts<\/span><\/a> yielded no action. Surrounded by the Azeri military, with dwindling food supplies, no access to medicines nor medical treatment, fuel or electricity, the<\/span> Armenians were faced with two choices: death or displacement.<\/span><\/a> An Azeri <\/span>bombardment and forced expulsion<\/span><\/a> of the entire Armenian population followed on September 20, 2023, cruelly coinciding with Armenian Independence Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Azerbaijan flouted international law through this illegal blockade, starvation siege, invasion, occupation and depopulation of Artsakh, imprisoning of civilians and wanton and widespread <\/span>destruction of Christian Armenian heritage sites.<\/span><\/a> Baku ignored the International Court of Justice\u2019s (ICJ\u2019s) February 2023 legally binding order \u201c<\/span>to \u2018take all steps at its disposal\u2019 to allow free movement of traffic along<\/span><\/a> the only road between Armenia and the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh.\u201d <\/span>Azerbaijan also ignored the ICJ\u2019s November 2023 ruling<\/span><\/a> which instructed the Azeri combatants to “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and <\/span>desecration affecting Artsakhian Armenian cultural heritage,<\/span><\/a> including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artefacts.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, Azerbaijan\u2019s dictator <\/span>allocated US $1M to the UN Human Settlements Program, just a day before a UN mission visited the Artsakh region<\/span><\/a> in October 2023. With palms sufficiently greased, that bogus mission <\/span>went on to report \u201cno irregularities,\u201d<\/span><\/a> in spite of the entire territory being depopulated as a result of Azerbaijan\u2019s military invasion.<\/span> To date, there have been no global sanctions or consequences for Azerbaijan\u2019s crimes against humanity. Quite the contrary: one year following the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, the instigators find themselves hosting the UN Climate Conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"The
The Camel Cannot See His Own Hump (cartoon by Lucine Kasbarian).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Why does Azerbajian seemingly succeed in getting away with all this? First, they have deep pockets with which to administer payola, which seems to satisfy many global lawmakers. Secondly, their desire to carve a pan-Turkist<\/a> corridor stretching eastward and uninterrupted from Turkey all the way to Mongolia is a long-desired Turkic unification movement which the West seems to encourage, the better to benefit from the exploitation and transport of natural resources. The only obstacle physically (and spiritually) standing in the way is Armenia and Artsakh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As one of the globe\u2019s top environmental and fossil fuel polluters,<\/span><\/a> and as recently as 2020, during its invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan employed the outlawed, deadly, <\/span>environmentally hazardous White Phosphorus as a chemical weapon upon the native Armenian population<\/span><\/a> and their highly forested environment. This is not to say that ethnic Azeris are immune from the wrath of the Aliyev regime. The height of irony is that in their fatal siege, the Azeri government-sponsored blockaders posed as <\/span>environmental protesters,<\/span><\/a> while <\/span>genuine protesters of lethal pollution and climate destruction in Azerbaijan are persecuted<\/span><\/a> and silenced, <\/span>particularly journalists and activists in advance of COP29.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 Azerbaijan\u2019s authentic <\/span>environmental activists,<\/span><\/a> conscientious dissenters,<\/span><\/a> peace activists<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>independent journalists<\/span><\/a> are harassed, <\/span>arrested on trumped up charges<\/span><\/a>, tortured and assassinated. That heavy hand of authoritarianism has only <\/span>tightened its grip ahead of COP29.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While <\/span>more than 100 countries participating in COP28 desired the phasing-out of fossil fuels,<\/span><\/a> Azerbaijan has <\/span>doubled down<\/span><\/a> on and increased its production, effectively disparaging the entire purpose of such a gathering. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2022 <\/span>signed<\/span><\/a> an agreement to double purchases of Azerbaijani gas by 2027. Instead of condemning Azeri aggression in the South Caucasus, Von der Leyen famously said that she considered Azerbaijan <\/span>a reliable, trustworthy partner<\/span><\/a> in the EU\u2019s bid to wean itself off Russian natural gas in the wake of the NATO-provoked Ukraine war with Russia. As the <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/a> and others have reported, Azerbaijan risks becoming a conduit for the <\/span>disguised export of fuel from Russia<\/span><\/a>, simply to help Europe give the outward impression that it\u2019s boycotting Russian gas.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much like the propaganda stunt-prone Erdogan, warmonger Aliyev aspires to repackage himself as a <\/span>peacemaker<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>global player<\/span><\/a> through the added exposure that his proposed <\/span>COP Truce<\/span><\/a> \u201cday of peace\u201d during COP29 will provide. Paul Polman, a former chief of Unilever and now a climate activist and peace campaigner, said: <\/span>\u201cThe idea of a \u2018COP truce\u2019 is a deeply cynical PR stunt by Azerbaijan<\/span><\/a> designed to distract the world\u2019s attention away from its ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh last year. There are <\/span>more than 300 political prisoners languishing in Azeri prisons<\/span><\/a> and even more detainees who are captured civilians.\u201d Meanwhile, Aliyev has often announced that he <\/span>intends to invade Armenia proper<\/span><\/a> as soon as the COP29 show is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aliyev has made no secret of coveting sovereign Armenia itself, claiming that ancient Armenia is squatting on a <\/span>fictitious \u201cWestern Azerbaijan.\u201d<\/span><\/a> That\u2019s quite a statement coming from the leader of a country that has just turned 106 years old. As journalist <\/span>Lindsey Snell stated,<\/span><\/a> \u201cWe need to take Azerbaijan\u2019s seemingly ridiculous propaganda seriously. Because in the hands of an aggressive, rogue state, even the most outlandish claims can become pretexts for very real and very dangerous actions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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