Boycott Baku – Stop COP Baku

The Coalition to Boycott Baku encourages you to press your elected representatives to call on the world’s governments, environmental activists and their corporate sponsors to deny Azerbaijan the sort of legitimacy and international honor represented by its selection to host COP29. Tell them to “Boycott Baku.”

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The 2020 War

• In September 2020, under the cover of COVID, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked war against the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as the Republic of Artsakh), which ethnic Armenians had inhabited for thousands of years.
• The war was a significant escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region involving Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the self-declared Armenian breakaway state of Artsakh.
• Turkey provided military support to Azerbaijan, while Armenia backed the Republic of Artsakh.
• Numerous countries and the United Nations strongly condemned the fighting.

The Blockade

• For nine months, starting in December 2022, Azerbaijan imposed a strangulating blockade of the Lachin Corridor connecting the Republic of Artsakh to Armenia.
• This strategic artery was Artsakh’s only access to food, supplies and basic medical needs.
• Once Azeri forces severed the corridor, Artsakh’s 120,000 residents were subjected to tremendous deprivation, with some perishing from starvation.

The Day of Terror

• On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against Artsakh, bombing multiple areas and killing more than 200 people.
• Within weeks, Artsakh’s entire population of more than 120,000 people were forced to flee to Armenia, where they are now living as refugees.

The Exodus

• The bombs and rumors of a newly constructed and very large detainment center just over the Azeri-controlled border compelled the people of Artsakh to fear for their lives.
• After gathering in the capital, Stepanakert, tens of thousands of people, many with only the clothes on their backs, piled into trucks, cars and buses to make the perilous trip to Armenia.
• Refugees from Artsakh are now living lives with uncertain futures in Armenia, dependent on the goodwill of others for support. They want the right to return to their homes in safety but believe their lives would be in danger without international agreements to secure them.

The Prisoners

• Azeri forces seized from the fleeing masses hundreds of political prisoners and prisoners of war.
• Many were tortured or otherwise brutalized.
• A number were even murdered in Azerbaijan’s notorious prisons.
• While some of these prisoners have subsequently been released, twenty-three remain in prison and Azerbaijan claims that more than 200 are “missing.”

The Reward

• Two months after the Azeri-Turkish rape of Artsakh, the United Nations announced that Azerbaijan would be the host of the 29th Climate Change Conference of Parties in Baku.
• By so doing, the UN legitimated and “honored” those responsible for genocide.
• It has also ensured that anyone taking part in the COP29 will be complicit in the “greenwashing” of that ultimate crime against humanity.

The Green Zone

• Now, the Azeris are trying to rewrite history by erasing evidence of Armenians and Christianity in the Caucasus in furtherance of the claim the land and its history are their own.
• Specifically, the Azeri regime is destroying sacred sites by defacing/razing ancient churches, bulldozing graveyards and tearing down religious monuments.
• Azerbaijan looks to further “greenwash” this criminal conduct by claiming it will turn Artsakh into a “green zone.”

The Next Genocide

• The Azeri regime and its Turkish enablers make no secret of their intention to attack Armenia next.
• Some in both countries have openly expressed their desire to “finish” the genocide against the Armenians left incomplete at the end of World War I.
• That could translate into the forced removal, enslavement and/or mass extermination of some 3 million people.

The Coalition to Boycott Baku

The Coalition to Boycott Baku is an informal group of like-minded individuals and organizations.

We are committed to holding Azerbaijan accountable for the crimes against humanity that it has committed to date. And,

We are determined to prevent the further crimes the Azeri regime says it will perpetrate next.