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Sixty members of the U.S. Congress have signed a bipartisan, bicameral letter led by Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) calling for U.S. leadership in holding Azerbaijan accountable for committing war crimes, taking hostages, and illegally occupying Armenian territory – before the COP29 United Nations climate summit in Baku this November, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Having faced no accountability for its genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, it is incumbent on world leaders to use the COP29 summit as an opportunity to scrutinize Azerbaijan’s egregious human rights record — and confront efforts by its genocidal regime to greenwash its war crimes and atrocities,” stated ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “We echo the call for accountability in the Pallone-Markey letter and join with the sixty legislators who co-signed this bipartisan, bicameral appeal in demanding that Azerbaijan be held accountable – that the criminal and corrupt Aliyev regime be compelled to deliver on its human rights and international legal obligations before the COP29 climate summit,” concluded Hamparian.

In the October 3rd letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Senators and Representatives stated, “As COP29 approaches, we request that the State Department press Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the Government of Azerbaijan to take tangible measures that support regional peace, uphold human rights protections, and adhere to international laws and norms.”  They stressed that “Despite overwhelming evidence and international condemnation, Azerbaijan has not faced meaningful consequences for the ethnic cleansing and other actions.”

The lawmakers went on to urge the State Department to “press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, to enable a more conducive environment for successful diplomacy at COP29.”

The U.S. Senators and Representatives attested that “Azerbaijan’s deadly attack in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, the 10-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, and the September 2023 cleansing of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh blatantly violated international law and led to significant and continued human suffering.” They stress, “Civilians who have been displaced should have the safe and secure right to return.”

In addition to Representative Pallone – founding co-chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus and Ranking Member of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce – and Senator Markey, Chair of the Climate Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the letter was signed by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jackie Rosen (D-NV), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Peter Welch (D-VT), as well as Representatives Gabe Amo (D-RI), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Don Beyer (D-VA), Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Greg Casar (D-TX), Sean Casten (D-IL), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Dan Kildee (D-MI), John Larson (D-CT), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Susie Lee (D-NV), Mike Levin (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), James McGovern (D-MA), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Grace Meng (D-NY), Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Scott Peters (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Dina Titus (D-NV), Lori Trahan (D-MA) and David Valadao (R-CA).

The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) is the premier global climate summit organized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The COP29 summit has been mired in controversy since Azerbaijan was announced as host at last year’s COP28 summit hosted in the UAE – making Azerbaijan the second petro-dictatorship with an egregious human rights record to host the conference in a row. Azerbaijan is one of the most fossil fuel-dependent economies in the world, with oil and gas comprising up to 90 percent of its exports and providing 60 percent of the government’s budget.

Baku was only granted the privilege of hosting COP29 after Armenia dropped its veto in exchange for the release of 32 Armenian POWs – one of many instances of Azerbaijan resorting to hostage diplomacy to impose demands on Armenia. To date, Azerbaijan continues to arbitrarily detain at least two dozen known Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners – with many still unaccounted for, given Azerbaijan’s refusal to acknowledge or confirm their status. International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have noted that these POWs have been subject to abuse and torture in detention – in brazen violation of international law.

Furthermore, many of these POWs have been in Azerbaijan’s illegal custody since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war – with their detention prolonged and extended without trial in order to extract concessions from Armenia, which is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.

Azerbaijan’s regime – ranked one of the most authoritarian in the world by Freedom House – has also engaged in unprecedented civil society crackdowns in the lead-up to the summit. In addition to denying journalists entry to Azerbaijan to report on the summit, Azerbaijan has arrested dozens of journalists and civil society leaders – and banned several members of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) from attending the summit, in response to criticism of Azerbaijan’s regime.

The summit also takes place against the backdrop of Azerbaijan’s ongoing military occupation of sovereign Armenian territory – and follows the blockade and genocidal assault on Artsakh’s entire Armenian population last year, which international human rights organizations, including Freedom House, have described as a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing. To this day, Azerbaijan continues to arbitrarily detain dozens of Armenian POWs, engages in the systematic destruction of centuries-old Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh, and regularly resorts to the threat and use of force to coerce Armenia into making concessions that were recently described by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) as “ridiculous” and “unfair” – undermining efforts to ensure a just and durable peace in the region.

Despite Azerbaijan’s claims that COP29 will be the “COP of peace,” – Azerbaijan recently rejected an interim peace agreement proposed by Armenia based on already agreed-upon articles, demonstrating that Azerbaijan has little interest in negotiating a just and durable peace in the region. Having faced no accountability for its aggression, Azerbaijan believes it can pay lip service to peace talks while continuing unabated in extracting concessions from Armenia by force.

Azerbaijan has also been deepening energy and security ties with Russia – colluding with Moscow’s malign regime to circumvent international sanctions. The Pallone-Markey letter calls on the Administration to use the COP29 summit as an opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties between the U.S. and Armenia – particularly in terms of supporting Armenia’s energy diversification and pivot away from Moscow.

The ANCA strongly believes that the COP29 summit presents an unprecedented opportunity to scrutinize Azerbaijan’s human rights record, encourage accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses, and pressure Azerbaijan to return to the negotiating table in good faith to ensure a peace agreement that secures the release of POWs, supports Armenia’s security and sovereignty, and upholds the fundamental right of displaced Armenians to return to their homes.

The full letter is available here.