By Nailia Bagirova
BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday rejected what he called a “disgusting” letter from U.S. lawmakers who criticized his country’s human rights record and urged the country to release political prisoners before hosting the COP29 climate conference next month.
The letter, signed by nearly sixty lawmakers, urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and prisoners of war, including ethnic Armenians, to achieve a more favorable environment for successful diplomacy at COP29.” .
It said “provocative” Azerbaijani statements towards Armenia risked undermining peace negotiations between the two countries, which have fought two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Speaking in Jabrayil, a city recaptured from Armenian forces during the 2020 war, Aliyev called the letter “a disgusting call that cannot influence our will” and said it was written “to threaten and accuse us ”.
Azerbaijan’s human rights record, including the detention of journalists and activists, has come under increasing scrutiny as the country prepares to welcome delegates and media from around the world to November’s climate conference.
Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, said in a statement to Reuters that Azerbaijan’s hosting of the event should not be turned into “a political tool.” He accused critics of diverting attention from climate action.
Representatives of Ruben Vardanyan, a former Russian investment banker who was a top official in the ethnic Armenian leadership of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, filed lawsuits this week alleging he was tortured and vilified by the media and denied his right to a speedy trial. in Azerbaijan.
Vardanyan has been in custody for the past year since Baku’s forces waged a lightning offensive to take back Karabakh, an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan where ethnic Armenians have enjoyed de facto independence since it was broken up in the 1990s.
The Attorney General of Azerbaijan said in response to the complaint that all of Vardanyan’s rights were respected and that he had received a dozen visits from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“His right to the presumption of innocence was not violated by the prosecutor’s office or other government authorities, and he was not subjected to inhuman treatment or torture,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement to Reuters.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, which Baku denies. The two countries have been engaged in volatile talks over a peace treaty for the past year.
Aliyev accused Armenia on Friday of being insincere about wanting to make a deal and rearm for new fighting, warning the country to “stop these dangerous games!”
Armenia, which this year withdrew from several Azerbaijani border villages it had long controlled, has said in recent weeks that Azerbaijan does not appear interested in signing a treaty.
