[OPINION] Azerbaijan is calling for COP Truce

IN one month, Azerbaijan will host COP29, the world's annual climate summit, with a sense of optimism that a crucial international deal on climate finance is within reach. Despite the turbulent state of world affairs, concerns over the health of our planet rank as highly as issues of global stability, security, and peace.

Because of this confluence, Azerbaijan has called for a "COP truce." Based on the ancient idea of the Olympic truce, this represents a plea for countries to observe a pause in conflict while nations negotiate remedies for the climate emergency on the planet we all share. Some might believe this overambitious. Maybe. But when the COP29 meeting in Baku is itself the product of a truce—one few believed possible—it would be a mistake for us not to try.

At Azerbaijan's COP, peace and climate are intertwined—precisely because we won the right to hold the event by walking the road to peace. Late last year there was still no host country agreed. It was the turn of an Eastern European nation, yet one country had publicly announced it would veto any EU member; another group of countries pledged to veto Russia; and Armenia—our neighbour who occupied our territories for 30 years—declared they would veto Azerbaijan.

It was bilateral peace talks between our two countries that broke the impasse. As well as a historic agreement to exchange detainees, those negotiations saw Armenia agree to back Azerbaijan's bid, and Azerbaijan agree to back Armenia's bid for membership of the COP Bureau of the Eastern European Group—all in the name of good will. The subsequent joint statement between the presidential administration of Azerbaijan and the prime minister's office of Armenia, issued on Dec. 7, was historic, and defined the basic principles of interstate relations between our two countries.

These bilateral talks have, arguably, borne more fruit than the previous three years of negotiations mediated by international actors, when even those with the best of intentions come to the table with an agenda. Border delimitation commissions have been founded and have already delivered a demarcation along a portion of the border. A de-facto peace has become a reality on the ground. Peace is within reach.

Still, there remain major obstacles in our way. First is the Constitution of Armenia, which calls for a joining of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region with Armenia. This constitutional revanchist claim has been an impediment to peace before: In 1996, Armenia's then-president refused to sign the final declaration at an OSCE summit, arguing that the Armenian Constitution did not permit the signing of an international document recognizing Karabakh as part of the territory of Azerbaijan.

Secondly, we are also concerned over the intensive militarization of Armenia by France and other Western countries that serves not the cause of peace but the revival of irredentism. Similarly, the chorus to release warlords who committed heinous crimes against Azerbaijani civilians, while calling them 'prisoners of war' we consider immoral.

Azerbaijanis and those who follow events in the south Caucasus know full well there is more than one Armenia: there is its official government, there is its political opposition, and then there is the Armenian diaspora. The opposition is comprised of many warlords who sought and fought that first war of the 1990s, and today call again for a new conflict. The well-funded diaspora contains many with rose-tinted views of their long-left-behind ancestors and an ethnic hatred without compromise towards Azerbaijanis and our country. Sometimes these different Armenias work together. Sometimes they squabble with each other.

We can only negotiate with the Armenian administration. But all are free to unleash attacks on Azerbaijan, and in the run-up to COP29 they are doing just that, precisely because this is the moment when the world's attention turns to our country and the chance for us to deliver a critical climate deal.

We are aware that most COP hosts experience a barrage of negative publicity from their geopolitical opponents before these summits. We did not expect COP29 to be any different. However, there is a difference between criticism and falsehoods: that Azerbaijan is hosting COP to burnish our international reputation—when in fact we had no plans, or ever believed, we would hold COP at all; or that Azerbaijan will not accept a climate deal that will disrupt our oil and gas industry—when in fact we are already transitioning from being a fossil fuel to an electricity exporter, powered by wind, hydro, and solar.

Azerbaijan can and will deflect these egregious attacks and more. It should not be acceptable for any country or group that cares about our environment to use the climate agenda for geopolitical gain. The Armenian lobby pay lip service to regional peace when they misuse COP for such intentions. They show little care for the natural world that Armenia shares with Azerbaijan when they seek to spoil talks on a climate emergency that touches all of us.

Azerbaijan will not be diverted from our call for a COP truce, and we intend to use all our negotiating experience, learned in the aftermath of war, to seek peace and partnership in our region and a climate deal for the world. Whether you are a friend or foe of Azerbaijan, all those possessing humanity should hope the road rises with us, and the wind be at our backs.

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Mr. Hikmat Hajiyev is the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.

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