As things stand now, the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP29) will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan between 11-22 November. No one should attend this event given the host country’s responsibility for monstrous crimes against humanity perpetrated a year ago – and what it is threatening to do next.
For nine months in 2023, the Azeri regime – with the support of its principal sponsor, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan – blockaded the 120,000 Christian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as the Republic of Artsakh), resulting in widespread privation and even starvation. Then, on September 19th, Azerbaijan’s military and Turkish special operations units forcibly expelled all those Christians, obliging them to seek refuge in Armenia.
Granting Azerbaijan what its president, Ilham Aliyev, has described as “the honor” of hosting this international event is all the more unthinkable as the Azeri regime and Erdogan’s have made no secret of their shared determination to attack Armenia next. Indeed, some have described their goal as being to complete the genocide the Ottoman Turks began during World War I, killing over one million Armenian Christians.
If the perpetrators of these recent and impending acts of jihad are not held accountable for them, the “international community” and environmental organizations will share in the culpability for such crimes.
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.”
We make it easy. Please add your voice to ours.