Op-Ed by David Boyajian
Hard to believe but true:
A greenhouse-gas-spewing, polluting, corrupt, repressive, genocidal, international-terrorism-supporting regime is hosting the UN’s annual Climate Change/Global Warming (CCGW) conference in mid-November.
The regime’s head is President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s blood-soaked despot.
About 32,000 persons and perhaps 150 countries will reportedly attend the 12-day event, dubbed COP29. COP refers to the UN’s Conference of the Parties for climate change.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken — a huge CCGW booster — has, naturally, hopped on the COP29 bandwagon.
“We strongly support” Aliyev’s “leadership of COP29,” declared Blinken (with a straight face).
Pres. Biden’s Climate Change Envoy and ex-Envoy — John Podesta and John Kerry — will be jetting off to the conference, undoubtedly to sing the corrupt Aliyev’s praises.
They’re among the numerous Climate Change devotees who’ve undermined CCGW’s credibility by not condemning the bloody autocracy’s hosting COP29.
Similarly, few Climate Change critics have rebuked COP29’s host. They’ve squandered a golden opportunity to embarrass the CCGW movement.
Fossil fuels constitute about 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports and 60% of its budget.
Frankly, Azerbaijan’s CCGW record stinks, literally too.
Spewing Greenhouse Gases
Azerbaijan, says Climate Action Tracker, “is among a tiny group of countries that has actually weakened its climate target.”
Its greenhouse gases “are projected to continue rising by around 20%.” The country’s going “backward instead of forward.”
Moreover, Azerbaijan’s “renewable energy targets remain weak.”
And Baku, with Turkey’s help, has been violating EU sanctions by selling Russian fossil fuels to the West.
Gas flaring at Azerbaijan’s Sangachal oil/gas terminal has triggered breathing and other severe health problems, even in faraway residents.
Not surprisingly, Azerbaijan’s made a mess of its environment.
Spewing Pollutants and Cracking Heads
Notes the CIA: The “Apsheron Peninsula (including Baku) and the Caspian Sea” are the “ecologically most devastated area in the world … severe air, soil, and water pollution,” oil spills, and “untreated municipal and industrial wastewater.”
Aliyev’s daughters’ offshore companies own major shares in Azerbaijan’s gold mines.
Police have beaten and arrested Azeris protesting the mines’ byproducts: cyanide and other toxic waste.
Already notorious for suppressing media and imprisoning dissidents, Aliyev’s been cracking down ahead of COP29.
It’s “embarrassing,” states Human Rights Watch, that a “rights-abusing petro-autocracy” is hosting a COP.
Baku’s “repression of activists, journalists and opposition leaders, at home and abroad,” said the EU Parliament in October, is “incompatible” with COP29.
Furthermore, “Europe’s gas dependency on Azerbaijan must end” and “Azerbaijan must withdraw [its] troops from Armenia.”
In October, 58 members of Congress urged Sec. Blinken to press Aliyev to release “all political prisoners” and Armenian “hostages and POWs” ahead of COP29.
The Norway-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative suspended Azerbaijan seven years ago because its environmentalists couldn’t honestly voice their concerns. “Democracy and human rights are simply foreign to” Aliyev’s regime.
The Council of Europe Parliament has expelled Azerbaijan’s members over Baku’s lack of “free and fair elections” and its blockade and ethnic cleansing of 120,000 Armenians from their ancient homeland of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh.
Flaunting its environmental irresponsibility and genocidal intent, Azerbaijan has threatened to bomb Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power plant and launch a nuclear attack on its capital.
Aliyev’s Defense Ministry once declared that Armenians are a “nuisance [who have] no right to live in this region.”
Laundering Azerbaijan’s Image
Aliyev is employing COP29 as a vehicle to “greenwash” its decidedly non-green record.
His government has been trying to clean up its dirty image in other ways too:
“Songwashing (Celebrity performers), Sportswashing (EuroCup soccer), Carwashing (Formula 1 racing), Clotheswashing (Fashion Week) and Brainwashing.”
Aliyev has even dragged in the Vatican and His Holiness to sanitize the country’s image.
Then there’s the Azerbaijani Laundromat.
It shelled out billions in payoffs and bribes to European politicians and institutions.
Among the ethically-challenged Americans lured by Azerbaijani goodies:
- U.S. House members and staff
- Cong. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife
Meanwhile, Aliyev’s family & cronies are raking in COP29 contracts.
And fake Azeri “social media accounts” are working overtime to “drown out criticism” before COP29.
That many individuals and Climate Change organizations have criticized Azerbaijan’s hosting COP29 on both CCGW and human rights grounds must be acknowledged.
Luis Moreno Ocampo is the International Criminal Court’s first prosecutor. He’s called on Azerbaijan to release over 100 Armenian hostages before COP29. The latter are being mistreated and tortured.
Ocampo has also called the Aliyev regime’s 2022-2023 blockade of Artsakh’s Armenians “genocide.”
We must mention Baku’s long-running support of international terrorists.
Even the US, allegedly engaged in a Global War on Terrorism, has barely remarked on Azeri terrorism.
That an outright terrorist country could host any summit indicates how low the international community has stooped.
Those who have supported Azerbaijan as this year’s COP venue may pose a greater threat to humanity than does CCGW.
David Boyajian’s usual focus is the Caucasus. His work can be found at https://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian. 𝕏 @Boyajian_Writer
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