Rome, Nov 4 (IPS) – On December 12, 2022, a group of Azerbaijani environmentalists blocked the only road connecting Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The news went largely unnoticed in the mainstream media. Probably because it was difficult to understand.
How can a group of so-called environmentalists prevent the free movement of people and essential goods? So where exactly is Nagorno-Karabakh? Ten months later, the region’s entire population fled to Armenia in what many described as a televised act of ethnic cleansing.
By the time the world started looking for this Armenian territory on the map of the Caucasus, it was already too late. “Almost no one saw it coming,” he wrote new york times It describes the events that erased Nagorno-Karabakh from maps and history. And it is a painful history.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis led to a series of forced deportations. In the conflict zone, the First Karabakh War (1988-1994) ended with an Armenian victory, causing hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis to flee to Azerbaijan.
For 25 years, the Armenians in this territory enjoyed their own republic, which no one recognized. They renamed it to its ancient name, Artsakh. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan used this time to invest its oil and gas revenues in advanced military capabilities.
They were used in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. After 44 days of terror, Azerbaijan’s victory was declared in the fall of 2020. But for Baku it was an “incomplete” victory. The Armenians lost two-thirds of the territory they ruled but still remained in the capital and surrounding areas.
By the fall of 2021, Azerbaijan had tightened its grip, suffocating villages along its southern border with Armenia and effectively annexing much of the land. In 2022, it launched a massive artillery strike along most of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
But 2023 was much worse. The beginning of the end came with young members of a pro-government group calling themselves ‘environmentalists’. The blockade, with the support of the Azerbaijani army, lasted nine months until the Armenians fled.many In late September, after Baku launched its last decisive attack on its territory.
Former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo called Azerbaijan’s invasion a “genocide.”
Since then, refugee communities have watched helplessly as videos posted by Azerbaijani soldiers depict the looting of abandoned homes, desecration of cemeteries and destruction of archaeological heritage, including thousand-year-old churches.
There are also concerns about the conditions of Armenian prisoners of war. Baku admits it has 23, but human rights groups estimate the number could be more than 100. Information about their status and judicial proceedings is not yet known.
gold
On June 20, 2023, large protests erupted in the Azerbaijani town of Söyüdlü, 200 km west of Baku, after the announcement of a second artificial lake to store toxic waste from local gold mines.
Residents have already reported serious health problems, including high rates of cancer, due to water and soil contamination from a similar lake built in 2012. Crops and livestock were also affected.
Unlike six months ago, the protests were violently suppressed by the police. Media access was restricted and several individuals were arrested on bogus charges, including “drug trafficking.”
Once again, the news barely made it beyond the Caucasus-focused media. Moreover, it may have been difficult to explain to the world that the country hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) this November (11-22) was using excessive force to suppress environmental protests.
How can one explain a conference hosted by a country whose economy depends on oil and gas extraction in the Caspian Sea? Why does the United Nations trust a country that regularly attacks Armenia’s neighbors and imprisons or exiles political opponents, human rights activists, and journalists?
On September 24, Human Rights Watch noted that this COP was being held for the third consecutive year in “repressive countries that severely restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly” (previous COPs were Dubai and Egypt). I did it.
Azerbaijan has been ruled by a single family and its close-knit group since 1993. Ilham Aliyev, the current president of Azerbaijan, took office in 2003 after the death of his father.
According to observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the country held parliamentary elections on September 1 in a “restrictive political and legal environment” that is “devoid of political pluralism.”
caviar and gas
Investigations by groups such as the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have found that the Aliyev family’s vast wealth is spread across dozens of offshore companies. Azerbaijan ranks 154th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.
It is also “one of the freest places in the world,” according to Freedom House, a Washington-based NGO. Currently, 23 Azerbaijani journalists are imprisoned in a country that ranks 164th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index.
But none of this seems to matter to the outside world.
For many years, gaining influence by giving lavish gifts to European politicians has been a central pillar of Azerbaijan’s international policy. Western journalists, researchers, academics and lawmakers have also continued to be courted by Baku through a practice known as ‘caviar diplomacy’.
This strategy has played a key role in protecting Azerbaijan from sanctions aimed at combating the Aliyev regime’s disregard for human rights.
The 2022 gas agreement between Brussels and Baku, aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine, further supports this approach. The fact that Azerbaijan itself imports gas from Russia does not seem to pose a problem to the EU.
Over the 11 days of the summit, thousands of politicians and business leaders will find themselves welcomed by one of the most repressive and corrupt regimes on Earth.
The high-profile nature of this event will allow Azerbaijan to achieve one of its main goals. That is, to clean up their country’s image in the eyes of the world and to divert attention from structural problems with human rights and democracy.
But the silver lining is that this fall has been one of the calmest in years for Armenians. Everyone knew that Baku would avoid launching an attack right before the climate summit, which could damage its international image.
However, it is still unclear what the coming winter will bring.
© Interpress Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
