Blood and Oil—How Azerbaijan Greenwashes Its Human Rights Record | Opinion
As one of the leading symposiums on climate change, the United Nations Climate Change Conference has become one of the most important dates on the environmental calendar as countries from around the world meet to measure progress and negotiate multilateral responses to global warming. Also known as COP, the annual summit represents all that is good in the world as attendees tackle one of the biggest existential threats of our time. The conference, however, can also be used for nefarious purposes.
Take for example, Azerbaijan, a country that has been ruled by a petro-dictator, Ilham Aliyev, who has exploited their vast natural resources to buy a seat at the world's table. For years, Azerbaijan has tried to shape the world's perception of them as a country that is open for business, with oil and gas playing a vital role in those efforts. It's one of the reasons why Azerbaijan is celebrating the U.N.'s decision to name them as next year's host for COP29, which is shortsighted, confounding, and dangerous. Put simply, Azerbaijan is trying to cover up its dreadful environmental and human rights record through events like COP.
By awarding Azerbaijan this honor, the U.N. is sending the wrong message to the world and is undermining the core mission and ethos of the annual conference and organization as a whole.
When Azerbaijan hosts COP29 next year, it will do so as a country that relies heavily on oil and gas, which accounts for around 95 percent of its total export revenues. That production will only increase as the European Commission inked a deal with Azerbaijan in 2022 to double imports of natural gas by 2027, to help the bloc reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
And when attendees attend COP29 in Baku, they will also be visiting an area known to be "the ecologically most devasted area in the world," due in large part to oil spills and a country home to one of the most polluted places on Earth.
While there is no denying how Azerbaijan's oil and gas has done irrefutable harm to the planet, it is their weaponization of environmentalism that is more troubling. It promises to create a dangerous precedent for other autocrats looking to greenwash their ulterior motives. It was under the false pretense of environmentalism that Azerbaijan implemented their illegal road blockade of the Lachin corridor that forced more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, which many leading scholars including Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, called a "genocide." The group of Azeris who initiated the blockade claimed that they were raising the alarm about eco-terrorism in the region, but were also from the same country that inflicted harm on the environment during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war with Armenia.
During that conflict, Azerbaijan used chemical weapons to burn down forests where civilians took shelter from Azerbaijan's attacks. Video evidence showed Azeri military forces using white phosphorous munitions containing elements of chemical weapons in the primary forests of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan did not just limit their harm to the environment during the war with Armenia. They also continued to spread their ongoing policy of Armenophobia.During that conflict, Azerbaijan used chemical weapons to burn down forests where civilians took shelter from Azerbaijan's attacks. Video evidence showed Azeri military forces using white phosphorous munitions containing elements of chemical weapons in the primary forests of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan did not just limit their harm to the environment during the war with Armenia. They also continued to spread their ongoing policy of Armenophobia.
As the host city for COP29, Baku is also home to Azerbaijan's Military Trophies Park, Aliyev's ethnic hatred theme park that glorified and extoled his 2020 victory over Armenia by featuring hundreds of helmets taken from Armenian soldiers killed during the war. And when global heads of state meet to discuss how to address climate change, Armenian political prisoners, who are former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Armenian humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, will be sitting near them in Azeri jail cells.
Environmentalism has historically been used as a platform for good and enacting change. Cities like Paris (The Paris Climate Agreement) and Kyoto (Kyoto Protocol) have become symbols for environmental justice and models for climate transparency and openness. But environmentalism can also be used to mask injustices. As this year's host for COP28, the United Arab Emirates used the forum to whitewash its poor human rights and environmental record, which drew widespread criticism from climate advocates like former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
Azerbaijan is the latest country to turn to this playbook. That is why environmentalism and human rights are not mutually exclusive. It allows dictators like Aliyev to use their natural resources to fund their illegal wars and armed aggressions, and then hide behind international forums for perceived legitimacy.
Trusted public institutions like the United Nations have a responsibility to ensure that human rights and the rule of law are conditions for hosting events. They should expect countries that attend these gatherings to be good stewards of their land and people. The bar should be the same for where those meetings are being held.
Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He's a first-generation Armenian American and grandson to survivors of the Armenian genocide.
Newsweek, 2023
