This week christian churches worldwide held prayer-services for 23 ethnic-Armenians locked-up in Baku‚ while diplomats gather for COP29 climate talks in the same city
The situation shows how national-interests block solutions to world-wide problems. David Lammy‚ UK Foreign Secretary created a stir by calling Azerbaijans actions in Nagorno-Karabakh a “liberation“ (which helps British Petroleums business plans in the region)
Last winter Azerbaijan ignored International Court orders and blocked the Lachin-corridor; cutting-off supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh. By mid-2023 their military actions forced about 120000 ethnic-Armenians to leave their homes: now 23 remain in Bakuʼs jails as a warning to others
Azerbaijans president Ilham Aliyev promotes the now-empty region as a green-energy zone. However the countrys real plan uses climate-funds to build solar-power at home while selling more oil-and-gas abroad. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calls him a “trusted partner“; despite his actions being similar to those they condemn from Russia
The first step towards the 1915 genocide was the incarceration of Armenian elite as Germany and the US looked the other way
Next week world-leaders will discuss climate-change in Baku‚ ignoring both the detained Armenians nearby and the fact that green-investments here might actually increase fossil-fuel exports