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UK participation in COP29 must not be seen as an endorsement of genocide and human rights violations in Azerbaijan



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1 - UK participation in COP29 must not be seen as an endorsement of genocide and human rights violations in Azerbaijan

Dear MP {{mplname}},

As you will be aware, COP29 is rapidly approaching. This year, it is being hosted by Azerbaijan – a petrochemical dependant, authoritarian state, incentivised to simultaneously whitewash its appalling human rights practices and greenwash its terrible environmental record.

Azerbaijan economy is almost entirely supported by the export of oil and gas. Reports by the US State Department, European Union and multiple NGOs confirm that the one-family authoritarian state brutally suppresses freedoms of speech and assembly. Elections there consistently fall short of basic democratic standards, LGBT rights protection is amongst the worst in Europe, and the judiciary lacks any semblance of impartiality.

What’s more, Azerbaijan has spent the last four years committing a litany of violations of international law against ethnic Armenians. It launched an unprovoked war against the overwhelmingly ethnic-Armenian Republic of Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh) in September 2020, during which time Azerbaijani soldiers filmed themselves executing civilians. In September 2022, it invaded the Republic of Armenia, occupying hundreds of square kilometres of Armenian territory and committing yet more war crimes on camera. In December 2022, Azerbaijan began a blockade of Artsakh, subjecting the entire civilian population to food, energy and medicine shortages, and did not relent even after being ordered to do so by the International Court of Justice. Instead, it bombarded the Artsakh people with threats and images of rape, murder and cultural heritage destruction over loudspeakers and on social media, and routinely disrupted gas supplies to the region, making life insufferable. Then, in September 2023, it carried out another assault on Artsakh, forcing over 99% of its inhabitants to flee to neighbouring Armenia, and kidnapping various Artsakh political leaders amidst the chaos. Legal experts, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars and former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, have determined that Azerbaijan committed genocide against the people of Artsakh.

Now, satellite imagery confirms that Azerbaijan is systematically destroying centuries-old Armenian cultural heritage sites in Artsakh, including churches and cemeteries, and rebranding any heritage it spares as “Caucasian Albanian”. People’s homes have been widely ransacked. What’s more, the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative claiming all of Armenia as “historic Azerbaijani land” is also frequently appearing in Azerbaijani state-controlled media and in various speeches given by government officials. Given that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev uses ongoing peace negotiations to demand more concessions from Armenia, and Azerbaijani military spending is skyrocketing, it is painfully apparent that Azerbaijan is looking for an opportunity to invade and occupy yet more Armenian land, endangering the survival of this fragile democracy.

By a Resolution adopted on 24 October, the European Parliament has condemned Azerbaijan’s ongoing behaviour in the strongest terms and called on Azerbaijan to release Armenian prisoners of war, preserve Armenian cultural, religious, and historical heritage in Artsakh, and allow the safe return of the Armenian population to Artsakh. There have been similar demands echoed by US Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, and Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

Our participation in COP29 must not be seen as an endorsement of genocide, human rights violations. Accordingly, the UK must use its participation at COP29 to exert the substantial leverage it has over Azerbaijan to avoid a devastating conflict on the horizon and help establish a fair, dignified peace between the Azerbaijani and Armenian people. Accordingly, I ask you, as my representative in Parliament, to call on the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero of the United Kingdom (whose delegation will be attending COP29), to demand that Azerbaijan:

1. Release all Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners effectively held hostage in violation of Article 118 of Geneva Convention III,

2. Allow a British delegation to visit the Armenian prisoners held in Baku in the interim,

3. Ensure that the 160,000 Armenians of Artsakh can exercise the right to collective return under international protection, in accordance with the interim measure of the International Court of Justice dated 17 November 2023,

4. Cease its destruction and appropriation of Armenian-owned property and Armenian cultural heritage sites in Artsakh contrary to the ICJ’s order dated 7 December 2021 and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,

5. The full withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from all Armenian sovereign territory.

We hope you will do this not only to help salvage the tarnished reputation of COP conferences, but to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its reprehensible behaviour, entirely at odds with British values, and help the Caucasus avoid another devastating war.

Kind regards,