| A global campaign was launched to expose genocidal Azerbaijan ahead of the COP29.
What you can do:
1- Share these social media posts and add the following hashtags: #COP29Exposed, #COPout29, #COP29, #COP29Azerbaijan, #StopGreenwashGenocide, #FreeArmenianHostages and #FreePoliticalPrisoners.
2- Find out who your newly elected MP is and send an email explaining the atrocities carried out by Azerbaijan and all the human rights violations. Demand they write to the Foreign Secretary asking for:
• Free all political prisoners (both Azerbaijani and Armenian) and POWs.
• Guarantee the right to return and their safety for indigenous Armenian people to Artsakh by implementing international peacekeepers.
• Guarantee safety for Armenia itself and the peace agreement.
• Return of lands occupied during the 2020 war to the Republic of Armenia.
If you need help with the letter please contact us and we can assist you. |
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| The Armenian National Committees network launched a campaign to expose the real, genocidal, belligerent, totalitarian, and anti-democratic nature of Azerbaijan ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (#COP29) in Baku on November 11-22.
The purpose is to reach governmental, political, public, and media circles to emphasize the right of the Armenian population of Artsakh to return to their native lands, demand to change the Azerbaijani anti-Armenian policy regarding the genocidal acts it has committed in Artsakh, its invasion of the borders of the Republic of Armenia and the illegal keeping of Armenian prisoners and hostages.
The Hai Tahd network calls every Armenian to publish graphics and videos from this website ( https://protestcop29.org/) using the hashtags #COP29Exposed, #COPout29, #COP29 and #COP29Azerbaijan. |
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| Luis Moreno Ocampo, first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), published an open letter to Armenians urging them to “expose all the abuses of President Ilham Aliyev” ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference Baku #COP29.
“To me, the link between climate change and genocide is stark and undeniable. Both are governed by international conventions that, unfortunately, have seen inadequate enforcement”, said Moreno Ocampo. “The genocide committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh in 2023 exemplifies the ongoing threat. Through starvation, bombing, and instilling fear, Azerbaijan has pursued a genocidal campaign”.
Moreno Ocampo called the Armenian communities to launch a media campaign using the hashtags #COP29, #StopGreenwashGenocide, #FreeArmenianHostages and #FreePoliticalPrisoners to demand “a truly peaceful COP29”.
We urge you to follow Dr. Moreno Ocampo and share his messages. |
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| Free Armenian prisoners! Remember them and fight for their release!
Political prisoners illegally imprisoned in Azerbaijan: Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan (3 former presidents). Other political prisoners include Ruben Vardanyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, Davit Babayan, Davit Manukyan, and Levon Mnatsakanyan.
Captives/Prisoners illegally imprisoned in Azerbaijan: Gevork Sujian, Eric Ghazaryan, Rachid Beglaryan, Davit Davityan, Davit Allahverdyan, Gurgen Stepanyan, Vagif Khachaturyan, Levon Balayan, Alyosha Khosrovyan, Garik Martirosyan, Lyudvig Mkrtchyan, Madat Babayan, Vicken Euljekian, Melikset Pashayan, Vasili Beglaryan. |
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| Amnesty International demanded the UN organizers of the #COP29 climate summit in November to ensure the Host Country Agreement (HCA) with the Azerbaijan authorities “contains human rights safeguards and that it is made publicly accessible immediately after it is signed so potential attendees can assess the risks they face at the event”.
“The Azerbaijan authorities regularly clamp down on criticism and have recently intensified their crackdown on dissent by detaining journalists, human rights defenders and climate rights activists”, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Climate Policy Advisor. “Given the egregious human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan’s government, it is vital that the Host Country Agreement struck with the UNFCCC is made public immediately after signing so it can be scrutinized to assess the extent to which civic space at COP29 is protected”. |
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| Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, British environmentalist and writer, published an article last April advicing companies to boycott the #COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
“Baku will be worse than Dubai – as the capital of an even more corrupt, even more misogynistic, and more autocratic petrostate than the UEA. Think about it carefully: just by being there, your company will be conferring credibility on a process that has comprehensively squandered whatever credibility it might once have had”. |
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| Paul Polman, Former Vice Chair of the UN Global Compact, wrote an article on Daily Express suggesting that “Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses should bar it from ever hosting the COP summit”.
Referring to the Artsakh-Armenian POWs held captive in Azerbaijan, Paul Polman said that they are “refused a proper trial and access to independent international legal advice, or any visitors; denied proper food or medical treatment; and, as we found out recently; dreadfully mistreated”.
“Azerbaijan is a country that has scant regard for human rights and international law. The country is scored a pitiful 7 out of 100 by Freedom House, which tracks democracy and freedom across countries. Journalists face harassment, blackmail and bribery attempts. If they resist, they are thrown into prison. Those that leave face their families being persecuted. The United Nations should demand from Azerbaijan a release all Armenian prisoners before the COP29 summit, as well as launch a review into how future host countries are selected”. |
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2. Freedom House special report on Artsakh
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| Freedom House issued a special report entitled “Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?” on July, 2024.
“An analysis of the actions and rhetoric of Azerbaijani authorities in conjunction with the lived experiences of the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh provides reasonable grounds to conclude that their forced displacement was intentional. The evidence suggests a coordinated, long-term plan aimed at ridding Nagorno-Karabakh of its ethnic Armenian population. This policy was achieved through regular actions that constitute gross violations of human rights, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law”.
“Accordingly, the documented actions of Azerbaijan meet the criteria for ethnic cleansing as understood in the context of the former Yugoslavia conflict, inflicting it through means of extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary arrests and detention, restrictions on the access to food and life-saving medication, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, and wanton destruction of property”.
“The fact-finding mission has determined that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that these practices as well as other acts cited in this summary also constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including Article 7 (crimes against humanity), and Article 8 (war crimes), and align with the definition of deportation or forcible transfer of population. These findings and lack of prosecution on the domestic level in Azerbaijan underscore the urgent need for international legal scrutiny and accountability, with a recommendation for referral to the ICC to ensure a thorough investigation and potential prosecution of those responsible for these egregious acts”. |
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3. Congratulations to the new UK Government
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| Congratulations to the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer on their victory during the UK General Election of July 4th.
On behalf of the Armenian National Committee of UK, we hope that the new administration will consider having more pro Armenian policies.
We will continue defending the interests of the Armenian community in the United Kingdom and look forward to working with the new MPs to promote security, democratic values and human rights. |
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| Congratulations to MP David Lammy for his appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. |
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4. UK Parliamentarians raising the issues of Armenia and Artsakh
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| Question by Sir John Whittingdale and answer by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a debate on NATO and European Political Community Meetings in the House of Commons on 22 July 2024. |
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5. News articles and recent developments
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| The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) issued a public statement on Azerbaijan to address the “persistent lack of cooperation by the Azerbaijani authorities with the CPT”.
“The reason behind this exceptional decision to make a public statement is the outright refusal of the Azerbaijani authorities to cooperate with the CPT”, said the organisation. “The CPT has detailed in its visit reports that it continues to receive allegations of severe acts of ill-treatment and even of torture by police officers. Yet, no action has been taken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan to implement the Committee’s long-standing recommendations to end such practices”. |
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| The world-renowned Armenian surgeon Prof. Lord Darzi, “Robo Doc”, has been appointed by ministers to lead an independent investigation into the performance of the NHS, reported The Guardian. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the review would be aimed at “diagnosing the problem” so ministers could “write the prescription”. Charged with assessing the evidence that could help reshape the NHS, the task presents an opportunity for an innovator who relishes a challenge.
“As every clinician and every patient knows, the first step to addressing any health problem is a proper diagnosis,” said Darzi after his appointment was announced. “My work will analyse the evidence to understand where we are today – and how we got to here – so that the health service can move forward. This is an important step to re-establishing quality of care as the organising principle of the NHS.” |
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| The Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan issued a statement threatening to attack Armenia again and restart the war on July 25.
“The military exercises conducted by the United States in Armenia, the provision of lethal weapons to Armenia by France, and the initial phase of military aid in amount of ten million euros provided to Armenia by the European Union under the guise of the European Peace Facility encourage the occupying state – Armenia to carry out such provocations and indicate its preparation for another war against Azerbaijan”, said the Azerbaijani MoD.
“If these provocative actions against our country are not stopped, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan will take necessary response measures using all means at their disposal for the purposes of self-defense”. |
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| A Judge ruled against disclosing the secret identity of the donor behind a controversial £10m donation to Oxford University to establish a new research centre specialising in Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and Central Asia facilitated by the “British Foundation for the Study of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus (BFSAC)”, which includes Nargiz Pashayeva, the sister-in-law of Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler Ilham Aliyev, as one of the board members.
The judge dismissed openDemocracy’s appeal for transparency after the university refused openDemocracy’s Freedom of Information (FOI) request asking for the identity of the donor and copies of communications around the handling of the donation.
OpenDemocracy contested the case, but the FOI watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), sided with the university. A subsequent tribunal backed the ICO, supporting Oxford’s secrecy over the case. |
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| Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey might enter Israel as it had done in Libya and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on July 28th, recognising Turkey’s involvement in the 2020 war. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them”, said Erdogan during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Rize. “There is no reason why we cannot do this. We must be strong so that we can take these steps,” Erdogan added in the televised address. |
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| Turkey defender Merih Demiral was banned for two games by UEFA after he made the gesture of the Gray Wolves, a racist and ultra-nationalist Turkish organisation, during a football match of the Euro 2024.
The Grey Wolves were banned in France in November 2020 for hate speech and political violence, including persecution against Armenians and profanations of Armenian Genocide memorials.
In May 2021, the European Parliament called on member States to designate it as a terrorist group. |
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| During a briefing in Yerevan on July 10, Samantha Power, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), called for ensuring the rights of the population of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to return to their homes.
“We call for ensuring the rights of these individuals and families so that they can safely return to their homes”, she said, according to News.am. “I was at the border in September 2023, and I still remember the stories of the families from Nagorno-Karabakh who fled to Armenia and the fear they endured. They were unable to get food and medicine for months before Azerbaijan took these communities”.
According to the Armenian National Committee of America, USAID spent zero dollars on humanitarian aid programs in Artsakh and Samantha Power refused to condemn the 10-month blockade perpetrated by Azerbaijan against the population of Artsakh. |
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| After a sham court case in Baku, the Fuzuli Military Court of Azerbaijan sentenced the Armenian citizen of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Rashid Beglaryan to 15 years in prison on fabricated war crime charges on July 12. The 61-year-old citizen was detained by Azerbaijani border guards in August 2023, after mistakenly crossing into Azerbaijani-controlled territory while intoxicated.
This case follows the same pattern as the case of Vagif Khachatryan, an elderly ethnic Armenian from Artsakh who was kidnapped by Azeri border guards during his ICRC-mediated medical evacuation and sentenced to 15 years in prison on fabricated war crime charges. |
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| Thomas Becker, Legal and Policy Director at the University Network for Human Rights, wrote an article on Newsweek calling the international community to “hold Azerbaijan to account”.
“Last September, Azerbaijani forces attacked the self-governing enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and within days all 120,000 ethnic Armenians fled their ancestral homeland, most becoming refugees in neighboring Armenia”, explained the author. “Aliyev has also deployed another classic device of dictatorships: to distract the population’s attention with manufactured crisis against invented foreign enemies”, he added.
The author called for “sanctions against Azerbaijani officials responsible for human rights violations” and “targeted sanctions on industries that are vital to Azerbaijan’s economy”. Lastly, he called the invitees of #COP29 to “boycott the conference or arrive and use the occasion to put the Azerbaijani leadership on notice that it is being watched”. |
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At the invitation and organization of Christian Solidarity International, three members of the Committee for the Defense of the Fundamental Rights of the People of Nagorno Karabakh visited Geneva and Bern. The delegation included Vartan Oskanian, former Foreign Minister of Armenia, Armine Aleksanyan, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Nagorno Karabakh, and Karnig Kerkonian, a human rights lawyer.
The discussions focused on key issues such as the right of collective return for Armenians displaced from Nagorno Karabakh, the release of Armenian hostages detained in Baku, and safeguarding Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijani desecration and destruction.
On Tuesday, July 9, CSI hosted a side event at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The event highlighted the right of return for the people of Nagorno Karabakh to their homeland as an essential part of building sustainable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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| July 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus. Free United Cyprus!
ANC-UK message reached more than 100.000 views in X/Twitter. |
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