Yerevan Claims Baku’s Failure to Release Armenian Captives Prompted Armenia’s COP29 Boycott

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Armenia has not participated in the COP29 climate summit in Baku because of Azerbaijan’s failure to free any of at least 23 Armenian prisoners held by it, a senior official in Yerevan indicated on Thursday.

The Armenian government still did not rule out that participation just as the annual UN summit on climate change kicked off on November 11. None of its representatives eventually flew to the Azerbaijani capital for the two-week event.

“As regards the event held in Baku, something had to take place so that Armenia could participate,” said Sargis Khandanyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations. “And given that Armenian prisoners are being held in Baku, it is logical that Armenian and Azerbaijan should have achieved some result on this issue, that Azerbaijan should have freed and repatriated prisoners. But that didn’t happen.”

“In my personal view, without that [release] it was very hard to imagine Armenia’s participation in the event,” Khandanyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Armenian press reports said late last month that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan is ready to attend COP29 if the Azerbaijani side agrees to release some captives. Yerevan had dropped its objections to Baku’s bid to host the global summit last December as part of a deal that led to the release of 32 other Armenian soldiers and civilians held in Azerbaijani captivity.

Khandanyan revealed earlier that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan proposed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last month that their foreign ministers hold two-day intensive talks to iron out their remaining differences and sign a bilateral peace treaty before COP29. The senior lawmaker allied to Pashinian suggested on Thursday that Baku lacks the “political will” to strike such a deal.

“Armenia does have the political will to finalize and sign the peace treaty within days or weeks,” he said.

Baku makes the signing of the treaty conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which it says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.