The United Nations Greenwashes Aliyev’s Crimes Against Humanity and Ignores the Artsakh Genocide by Holding Its Climate Conference, COP29 in Azerbaijan
By Vic Gerami
Allowing a totalitarian country to host a United Nations event constitutes deliberate complicity by the UN and participating nations in the genocidal acts perpetrated against the Armenian nation by the Azerbaijani government, the propagation of falsified historical narratives, the misappropriation and erasure of the cultural and religious heritage of the Armenian people, and the policy of deceit by the Azerbaijani leadership to gain support from international organizations and governments to achieve its goal of the ‘Final Solution’ to the existence of Armenia.
By this blatantly interest-driven act, the UN ignores Azerbaijan’s campaigns of hate, violence, and disinformation against the Armenian people and its ambition to destroy the democratic Republic of Armenia and fulfill its pan-Turkic ambitions, appeasing tactical partners who have an interest in Armenia’s strategic position connecting Europe to the Middle East.
Azerbaijan has steadily slipped down the international rankings regarding respecting democratic principles and freedom of expression over the last 20 years. Notably, Azerbaijan went from a score of 6 (in 2005) to 7 (in 2016), then considered the worst on the index concerning political rights and civil liberties established by the American NGO Freedom House, joining the category of repressive dictatorships such as Iran, Myanmar, and North Korea. Since 2017, Azerbaijan has continued to fall in the Freedom House rankings, passing on the adopted new form of calculation formula, going from a score of 14 out of 100 to 7 out of 100 in 2024.
According to Freedom House, the Power in Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime remains heavily concentrated in the hands of Ilham Aliyev and his extended family, who has served as president since 2003. Corruption is rampant, and years of persecution have weakened formal political opposition. The authorities have carried out an extensive crackdown on civil liberties in recent years, leaving little room for independent expression or activism.
The Aliyev government has also recently become more radical in its ideology. ‘The regime is more nationalistic and militaristic than it was in the past. It no longer has any restraint,’ says political scientist Bahruz Samadov of Charles University in Prague.
This new paradigm is perfectly illustrated by the recently created Military Trophies Park in the capital city of Baku, where military equipment confiscated from Armenian forces is displayed, along with the helmets of slain enemy fighters and wax figures with caricatured features representing Armenian soldiers. Several observers have described the displays as ‘dehumanizing.’
The UN climate change summits are yearly meetings of government, climate, and industry representatives at which governments discuss how to prevent and prepare for climate change.
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Genocide
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, with help from Turkey, orchestrated a new genocidal attack and ethnic cleansing against the civilian indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
With arms, intelligence, training, and game-changing weapons from Israel, the two regional powers recruited and brought to Azerbaijan ISIS, Syrian, Libyan, and Pakistani jihadist mercenaries to slaughter Armenians and to carry out a wide-scale ethnic cleansing. The mercenaries were promised $2,000 a month to kill Armenians and $100 bonuses for every Armenian beheaded alive.
For nine months, starting in December 2022, Azerbaijan illegally blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the rest of the world, to starve 120,000 Armenians. Despite provisions and calls from nations, international bodies, and human rights organizations to open the corridor, including from the International Court of Justice, the United States Congress, and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Aliyev’s regime defied and doubled down, with frequent offensives on the population of Artsakh.
Between September 19 and 20, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour military operation against Artsakh. Azerbaijani military forces initiated both a ground offensive and aerial bombing of the region, seizing nearly one hundred local military posts in the process. Officials reported that 200 people died in the attack, and 400 were wounded. At least ten civilian deaths were reported, including five children, as a result of the operation. Within a day, the Azerbaijani military advanced within two kilometers of Stepanakert, the republic’s capital, while simultaneously engaging in heavy shelling of the city.
By forcing people to flee to Armenia with its deadly offensive, Azerbaijan succeeded in ethnically cleansing Artsakh of its indigenous Armenian population.
Azerbaijan Laundromat, Caviar Diplomacy, Crime, and Violation of International Law
Since the country’s independence in 1991, the Azerbaijan Laundromat has leveraged Azerbaijan’s extensive gas reserves to place a gag order on world leaders, regimes, and organizations with caviar diplomacy, blackmail, and violence.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). In two years, Azerbaijan siphoned about USD $2.9 billion through European companies and banks. The money was used to pay off Western politicians in an attempt to whitewash Azerbaijan’s reputation abroad.
Foreign relations also show the falsity of Azerbaijan’s public relations. Azerbaijan is a proxy of Turkey and an ally of Russia, the world’s two most irredentist countries. Its trade with Iran is a choice, not a necessity.
Media Manipulations and Propaganda
Journalists are also subject to surveillance. In 2021, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported that Azerbaijani journalists were among those targeted with the Pegasus spyware tool, which was likely supplied to the Azerbaijani government.
Since 2003, when Ilham Aliyev inherited the presidency from his father, corruption has flourished, civil liberties have been destroyed, and political opposition has been suppressed, leaving no room for freedom of expression and civic engagement. Journalists are harassed, blackmailed, and subjected to bribery attempts. If they resist, they are imprisoned. Those who leave the country and their families are persecuted.
While arrests of protesters are commonplace in Azerbaijan, in recent months, at least six independent journalists have been detained, with some warning of a crackdown on independent media.
Over the years, Amnesty International and other human rights groups have documented the widespread abuse by the Azerbaijani authorities of the criminal justice system to crack down on human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, often detaining and falsely charging their critics with economic crimes.
Azerbaijan is facing a worrying wave of arrests and repression against independent journalists and media outlets. Since November 2023, 10 journalists have been detained, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) strongly condemns the crackdown on media freedom as new arrests have occurred recently.
Corruption reaches the Council of Europe
Azerbaijan is also one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2023, Transparency International ranked it 154th out of 180 countries. The organization writes in its report that corruption “erodes various levels of society and state while undermining civic and political rights.” Thus, it contributes significantly to Aliyev’s hold on power.
Bribery has also been deliberately deployed by Baku outside the country — including of officials associated with the Council of Europe, an international organization that upholds human rights and the rule of law but is not affiliated with the European Union.
Azerbaijan has been a member since 2001. In 2012, Baku was revealed to have hosted up to 40 officials from the Council of Europe annually, showering them with expensive gifts. With this ‘caviar diplomacy,’ Aliyev was trying to buy favorable assessments of his country’s human rights situation.
Environmental Fail
Oil and gas exports account for about 90 percent of Azerbaijan’s exports and 60 percent of the state budget. According to the International Energy Agency, oil and gas account for more than 98 percent of Azerbaijan’s total energy supply. Moreover, despite its rhetoric about managing environmental impacts, Azerbaijan’s flagship state-owned energy company, SOCAR, holds one of the lowest places in the Oil and Gas Benchmark Ranking of the World Benchmarking Alliance.
Azerbaijan has failed to uphold its climate commitments as ratified in the 2016 Paris Climate Accord.
Protests in June against the reported pollution of lakes in Azerbaijan by mining companies were fiercely suppressed, with protesters beaten and arrested, journalists barred from covering the protests, and Soyudlu village remaining under police blockade almost six months later.
Zhala Bayramova, a human rights lawyer and the daughter of detained politician and economist Gubad Ibadoghlu told OC Media that Azerbaijan’s government’s claims regarding its efforts to combat climate change and its protection of human rights were ‘baseless’.
‘When we look at political prisoners and the inhumane conditions that they are kept in, it is very evident that Azerbaijan’s claims are misleading’, said Bayramova. ‘My father advocated for the open and accountable management of oil, gas, and mineral resources. He lost his job at the Economic State University for that.’
Bayramova added that Azerbaijan ‘does not even allow anybody to monitor climate change’, or the effects of oil, gas, and mineral extraction.
‘That shows itself in the arrest of environmental defenders like Nazim Bederbeyli, people being threatened with losing their jobs like my father, and also restrictions on people monitoring and filming oil and gas drills’, said Bayramova. She added that the government had recently cracked down on civil society and journalists ‘so that their false and unbiased claims cannot be disproven.’
Human Rights Catastrophe
Accompanying Baku’s reliance on fossil fuels is its abysmal human rights record. In its ‘Freedom in the World 2024’ report, Freedom House categorizes Azerbaijan as ‘not free,’ scoring 7 out of 100 — lower than Somalia and Saudi Arabia. Political rights are practically nonexistent. Issues related to freedom have turned for the worse after Baku’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Several independent journalists are experiencing a crackdown while being accused of undermining President Ilham Aliyev’s government.
Azerbaijan’s environmental and anti-corruption activists have been affected by government repression. In the past year, reports have circulated of Azerbaijani police having detained, beaten, threatened, or obstructed the work of several journalists reporting on environmental protests. Among them is Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, a scholar and political activist who focused on the fossil fuel sector by frequently questioning why Azerbaijan’s vast fossil fuel resources have not been invested in making the country more prosperous and democratic.
Additionally, he argued that relying on Azerbaijani gas as an alternative to Russian supplies was ‘unrealistic’, that Azerbaijan misrepresented data, and that it would ultimately resell Russian gas to Europe.
In 2023, Ibadoghlu published a paper titled ‘New Gas Deal with Azerbaijan for Europe’s Energy Security: Aspiration and Reality,’ which questioned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s characterization of Azerbaijan as a ‘reliable and trustworthy partner.’ He argues that Azerbaijan is quite unreliable as a business partner, as the country ranks extremely low on Transparency International’s corruption index, placed lower than Russia.
Ibadoghlu was arbitrarily and violently arrested in 2023, along with his wife, who was later released. In his detention, Ibadoghlu, like other Azeri political prisoners, has been subjected to inhumane treatment. ‘Conditions in the detention facilities are atrocious,’ he wrote to his family. Ibadoghlu’s health has rapidly deteriorated as Azerbaijani authorities have denied him essential treatment for severe medical conditions.
Members of the U.S. Congress and European Parliament have condemned the treatment of Ibadoghlu and demanded his release, but there are no signs that he will be released anytime soon.
Domestic Oppression
UN’s façade is also economic. While Baku – or at least those areas around its historic center and the Caspian Sea are beautiful, polished, and reflect great affluence, the capital’s slums and villages reflect a different reality, with ramshackle, corrugated metal houses and mudbrick huts devoid of electricity. International organizations reflect this with dry financial statistics. According to the International Monetary Fund, oil-rich Azerbaijan will again 2024 have a lower per-capita income than Armenia, a country with few natural resources and under a decades-long double blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey. The only explanation for such discrepancy is corruption, as Aliyev and his cronies siphon off billions of dollars.
Baku’s sin is not just its environmental record but its authoritarian treatment of its citizens, including environmental activists and protesters. COP29 must not be allowed to be a prestige-building opportunity for a regime that continues to silence the voices of its free thinkers.
Since late 2023, when Azerbaijan was nominated to host COP29, the government has stepped up efforts to stifle dissent. At least 25 journalists have been detained, including six who attempted to cover a June 2023 protest by villagers against the expansion of a nearby tailings pond by a gold mining company, Anglo Asian Mining. Locals suspect the reservoir’s toxic material contaminates water and soil, which the firm denies. Its Iranian-American chief executive is reputedly close to President Ilham Aliyev.
In December 2023, a snap presidential election was scheduled for February 2024, one year early. Some analysts suggested that Aliyev called the vote in order to consolidate public support after the successful military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The top two opposition parties, the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP) and Musavat, said they would boycott the election; the APFP chair called the planned poll ‘fakery in the name of elections, which is an imitation of democracy.’
Neither the president nor members of parliament are freely or fairly elected, and the parliament cannot meaningfully check the powerful presidency. Lawmakers and lower-level elected officials carry out the instructions of the ruling party.
Corruption is pervasive. Without a free press and independent judiciary, officials are held accountable for corrupt behavior only when it suits the needs of a more powerful or well-connected figure. Investigative reports published by foreign media in recent years have revealed evidence that members of the Aliyev family have used their positions to amass large private fortunes.
Ahead of an early snap presidential election in February this year, the number of reporters jailed or detained ticked up further in Azerbaijan. Civil society groups estimate that more than 300 political prisoners are being held. Some family members have been subjected to physical abuse, while others have had their funds frozen.
Azerbaijan ranks among the lowest globally — 158 out of 180 — on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, while Reporters Without Borders puts it at 167th out of 180, between Egypt and Bahrain.
In April, on his return to Azerbaijan after speaking at the Human Rights Council’s last session about the country’s rights violations, Anar Mammadli, a member of the COP29 Climate Justice Initiative, was jailed on trumped-up “smuggling” charges.
Concern over press coverage in Baku has also been rising since Western journalists refused entry to an energy summit in June, which President Aliyev opened.
Arzu Geybulla, an independent Azerbaijani journalist, wrote that the decision was a gift to the authorities despite their relentless crackdown on independent media and government critics.
According to the Union for the Liberation of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Siyasi Məhbusların Azadlığı Uğrunda İttifaq), the number of political prisoners in the country rose from 80 to 253 between February and December 2023 and shows no signs of slowing down: the group’s latest count published in mid-March lists 288 names.
Contradiction and Defiance
Representatives of the Azerbaijani government say they want this summit to be a ‘Peace Summit.’ This is when it has not even been a year since they invaded a neighboring country, and they have yet to reach the acceptance of a just peace agreement or show any real intention to move in that direction. Azerbaijan continues to hold political prisoners and fails to improve the human rights situation. Just recently, Amnesty International called on the UN to ensure that the Azerbaijani authorities protect the international rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly for all participating in the COP.
In Conclusion
COP29 is being hosted in an authoritarian petrostate with a shocking record of human rights violations, including clamping down on environmental protests and arresting journalists.
At the Bonn Climate Conference in June last year, states highlighted the importance of including human rights in Host Country Agreements at climate COPs and said HCAs should be made public.
The United Nations must stay true to its principles and demand the following from Azerbaijan:
- Recognize the Artsakh Genocide
- Recognize the Republic of Artsakh
- Allow Artsakh Armenians to return to their native land
- Guarantee the security of Artsakh
- Make reparations to the people of Artsakh for war crimes and crimes against humanity
- Release all Armenian hostages and those kidnapped from prison
- Release all political prisoners and journalists from prison regardless of nationality
Azerbaijan’s proposal for a truce during COP29 rings hollow unless the above-mentioned conditions are met unequivocally.
The 2023 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report on Azerbaijan states that there are ‘arbitrary detentions and serious problems with the independence of the judiciary,’ making an unconditional return of Armenian hostages and release of political prisoners the only viable path to justice.
It is not enough for the UN to discuss international law principles; it must enforce them uniformly across all nations. Rogue nations with vast fossil fuel should not be given a pass. Otherwise, it undermines the UN and damages the credibility of the Climate Change Conference.
The United Nations’ response to the Artsakh Genocide was nothing short of a ‘carte blanche’ for Azerbaijan to commit its calculated crimes against humanity by annihilating the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh from their ancestral homeland through slaughter, starvation, and terror.
Today, the UN stands at a crossroads that will determine whether it is an organization that caters to criminal states or continues to uphold some of its most relevant foundational principles of ensuring the protection of human rights, environmental responsibility, and anti-corruption policies. These policies stand in stark contrast with the UN’s decision to hold the COP2 conference in a country that blatantly tramples them, as it confidently showcases the complicity of the UN in its pursuit of global and regional criminal activities.
What will the legacy of the United Nations be in the aftermath of its decision to hold the COP2 in Azerbaijan? What will be the need for the UN to exist once it formally establishes itself as the corruptible entity complicit in upholding governments that engage in the very heinous crimes that it was established to protect nations from? CHOOSE WISELY AND BY YOUR OWN PROCLAIMED PRINCIPLES!
‘Motherland’ Documentary Film About the Artsakh Genocide Sizzle