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A group of activists reiterated the call for the Azeri government to release the 23 political prisoners it is illegally detaining in Baku, including entrepreneur and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan.

At a protest on Friday 7 June, protestors appealed to delegates at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC SB60), currently meeting in Bonn, Germany, to oppose Azerbaijan’s hosting of COP29 later this year. The Azeri government has declared that COP29 will be dedicated to peace – this is impossible while Ruben Vardanyan and the other 22 Armenians remain in Baku jail cells, and pretending otherwise will authenticate Azerbaijan’s continued genocide against the Armenian people.

The UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide analyzed Azerbaijan’s attacks in September 2023, when Mr. Vardanyan was seized, and alerted the world to the “risk of genocide and related atrocity crimes”. By attending and supporting COP29 while the prisoners are still in illegal custody, the world is letting Azerbaijan greenwash its crimes, which are not limited to crimes against Armenians but against its own people as well.  According to Human Rights Watch “A crackdown on independent voices over the past year has resulted in the arrest or sentencing of at least 25 independent journalists and civil society activists on a variety of bogus criminal charges. Almost all remain in pretrial custody”.

As COP29 approaches, FreeArmenianPrisoners and its supporters and partners will continue to loudly bring attention to the illegal actions of the Azeri government and calls on the media to bring awareness to the suffering of the 23 Armenian prisoners and the Armenian people.

To coordinate this effort, FreeArmenianPrisoners is collecting signatures to an online petition calling for the release of the prisoners: https://freearmenianprisoners.com/

About the protests

Activists from groups including FreeArmenianPrisoners, the Central Council of Armenians in Germany (ZAD), the Society for Threatened People (GfbV), the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Working Group Recognition – Against Genocide, for International Understanding (AGA), are coordinating collective action in Bonn on 07 June 2024.

All organizations are joining the calls for the 23 Armenian prisoners to be released and for Azerbaijan’s hosting of COP29 to be loudly and publicly criticized.