Agos newspaper writer Vicken Cheterian has expressed his concern in a column about the news that COP29 will be held in Azerbaijan and collected his comments on this subject under the title "Climate change is going to Baku." After it was announced in the last days of the 2023 United Nations Climate Summit COP28 that the next meeting would be held in Baku, Faktyoxla Lab investigated the claims made by Vicken Cheterian on the subject.
- There is no environmentalist party in Azerbaijan: this claim is partially false. Because, the first Green party in Azerbaijan was established in 1993. An organization with this name took its place in the political arena as the Azerbaijan Greens Movement in 1989, before the USSR had yet to be dissolved, and became a party in 1993. Its founding chairman was former Minister of Ecology Arif Mansurov. When Mansurov passed away in 2002, co-chairmen Elman Gafarov and Cemil Mansurova were elected instead. This party was once so active in politics in Azerbaijan that it even joined the Our Azerbaijan faction, which supported the candidacy of Presidential candidate Isa Gamber in 2003. In 2003 the party withdrew from Azerbaijani politics. And in 2006, the New Greens party was founded. Mais Gülaliyev was the founding chairman of the Party, which will work to ensure fundamental rights and freedoms in the country while preserving the environmental and ecological balance. Shortly after Gulaliyev left the party in 2013, the party became silent again. The party, which currently has no activities, was replaced by the Azerbaijan Greens Movement (party) formed by former MP Ceyhun Osmanli in 2019. Currently, the Movement continues its active political activities throughout the country.
2. Environmental NGOs in Azerbaijan only emerged with the movement that started on December 12, 2022: This claim is quite absurd and unfounded. Because, there are NGOs in Azerbaijan that have been operating in this field for years and have carried out projects with grant support programs opened by the Presidency of Azerbaijan and the Agency for Aid to Non-Governmental Organizations. These non-governmental organizations are in close cooperation with state institutions in order to prevent the ecological order in Azerbaijan from being disrupted, to ensure its continuity, and to support the solution of environmental problems. In the Social Board established by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, there are representatives of at least more than 10 non-governmental organizations operating in this field.
3. In Azerbaijan, government agents engage in fake environmentalism, while real environmentalists are arrested and imprisoned: This claim is not only untrue, but also slanderous. Because there is definitely a power behind the demonstration that took place in Soyudlu village of Gadabay district and everyone knows it. Since the investigation is currently ongoing, it is at least partially clear who stirred up this issue and how much, but at least it is not necessary to be a genius to understand whose logic it was to give people written papers and take them to the streets by chanting slogans. Attempts to provoke the incident by sending so-called journalists working with their own grant programs and making the situation even more complicated were clear indications that this incident was being controlled from outside. About a month after the incident, the Azerbaijani unit of the Voice of America radio prepared an interview about the Chowdar gold mine in the Dashkasan district, as if there was a serious problem in the region, and this, in a way, confirms our words. Since encouraging people to object and demonstrate by "establishing a serious connection" between the gold mine, which is 18 kilometers away from the village, and the social problems of the village is a well-tried method, the attempt to introduce some of the provocateurs, who were arrested for justified reasons immediately after the demonstration in Soyudlu, to the public as real environmentalists can never be considered journalism. It is an inappropriate attitude. The Azerbaijani activists who organized demonstrations due to ecological problems in Agdere are not secret agents of the government, as Mr. Cheterian claims.
By expanding this topic a little further, it is possible to respond to another claim of Vicken Cheterian. For some reason, when the subject is Azerbaijan, Armenians immediately think of issues such as arrested journalists and human rights violations. But when we investigated the issue, it became clear that 1088 investigations have been launched in Armenia regarding murders such as corruption and bribery in the last 9 months. When we consider the same period last year, we see that the number of investigations initiated is 606. In other words, corruption crimes have increased by 79.5 percent. We do not claim this, Sasun Hachatryan, the authorized person who heads the Anti-Corruption Unit in Armenia, says this. Also, if Vicken Cheterian is concerned about the situation of journalists in Azerbaijan, I would like to remind how independent blogger Mika Badalyan, who was most recently arrested in Goris, and Sputnik Armenia employee Ashot Gevorgyan, were detained in Goris.
Additionally, Yazidi activist and journalist Sashik Sultanyan remains in prison.
Conclusion:
- Agos newspaper writer Vicken Cheterian's concerns about the news that COP29 will be held in Azerbaijan are completely unfounded.
- The claim made in the article, "There is no environmentalist party in Azerbaijan" - is partially false,
- The claim that environmental NGOs emerged in Azerbaijan only with the movement that started in the Lachin Corridor on December 12, 2022 is unfounded. Because, there are already non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan that carry out the necessary work on the subject and they are doing the necessary work.
- The claim that real environmentalists are arrested and imprisoned in Azerbaijan is not only unreal and false, but also full of slander.
