Senator Ed Markey and Representative Frank Pallone were among U.S. lawmakers who attended late last week the annual UN summit on climate change that began on November 11. They as well as another Democratic senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, publicly criticized there the Azerbaijani government’s poor human rights record and actions in the conflict with Armenia.
“We believe that the political prisoners should be released. We believe there should be a right of return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh,” Markey told reporters in Baku at the weekend.
“We are very regretful that the dislocation of so many Armenians has taken place,” Whitehouse said for his part. “To put it mildly, I’m far from convinced that Armenians are to blame for that.”
Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington late on Monday, Markey and Pallone said they were hounded by pro-government Azerbaijani journalists and protesters who they believe acted on Azerbaijani government orders.
“I thought there was going to be an assault on me,” said Pallone, who has for decades been one of the most pro-Armenian U.S. congressmen.
“If it wasn't for the fact that the security that the [U.S.] Embassy hired protected me, I would have been in hospital. It was serious. I just want to be honest. It was very serious,” added the New Jersey lawmaker.
Azerbaijan - People walk near the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, November 14, 2024.
“Like Frank, I felt it, I had to have a bodyguard with me at all times,” said Markey. “Even in the lobby of the hotel, even going up to my room.”
The Azerbaijani government’s human rights record is “unacceptable” and “getting worse,” the Massachusetts senator said, urging Washington to “address” it.
Markey and Pallone were among six dozen U.S. lawmakers who signed an October 3 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing Azerbaijan of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh and urging the Biden administration to impose sanctions on it. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reacted furiously to the letter, claiming that it was provoked by Blinken and making fresh threats of military action against Armenia.
Baku denies forcing the Karabakh Armenians to flee their homes and says they can live there under Azerbaijani rule. Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents rejected such an option even before the September 2023 military offensive that restored full Azerbaijani control over the region.
Armenia agreed to the choice of Baku as the venue of COP29 last December as part of a deal that led to the release of 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians held in Azerbaijan. Armenian officials were reportedly ready to attend the two-week summit in return for the release of some of the remaining 23 Armenian captives. None of them has been freed so far.