Washington, D.C. – As Congressional leaders who oversee committees dedicated to climate change issues, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) should have been able to attend the UN-sponsored COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, free from harassment by Azeri dictator Ilham Aliyev’s state-controlled media. But from the start of COP29, Aliyev proved himself an unworthy host, incapable of sticking to the topic of climate crisis negotiations.
In his opening remarks, Aliyev praised fossil fuels, and attacked the European Parliament and nations like France and the Netherlands that have been critical of his brutally oppressive regime. Then he turned his state media on Sen. Markey and Rep. Pallone for their support for Armenians that Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homeland in Artsakh last year, such as sending a letter to Secretary Blinken urging the State Department to take action on hostages and political prisoners still held by Azerbaijan.
The Assembly commends Sen. Markey and Rep. Pallone for attending COP29. Their presence was an act of open defiance of the dictatorial regime and its attempts to silence critics. Both leaders deserve the respect and gratitude of those who care about human rights and decency. We hope the State Department takes note of how these Congressional leaders were treated at a United Nations conference hosted in Baku, and instructs US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mark Libby to openly express their displeasure.
Rep. Pallone and Sen. Markey’s Stories of Abuse and Harassment at Hands of Azeri State-Media and “Protesters”
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At a press conference held on Monday, November 18, 2024 by Sen. Markey and Rep. Pallone upon their return from Azerbaijan, Rep. Pallone stated that he faced consistent and aggressive harassment by state-owned media and state-organized protests, and that he needed to leave the conference early due to non-stop threats and concern for personal harm.
“When I got there it was…an exercise in what despots do,” said Rep. Pallone. The media was saying ‘Oh, Pallone was the one who started the fight’….You know in Azerbaijan, there’s no free media. The media is totally controlled by the state. So when you are arriving at the conference as I did, and there are 20 to 30 seeming reporters who are calling you names and synchronizing what they say with the iPhones…and then they start gesturing to what I thought was going to be an assault on me. You know that this was orchestrated by the government.”
Rep. Pallone continued: “This happened consistently on the first day that I was at the conference, at least twice or three times. Then we went back to the hotel, and the hotel was just protesters. Thugs, in my opinion. It wasn’t even the so-called media there. There might have been more, maybe 50 or so. And there, it was clear that they wanted to assault me. There’s no question that if it wasn’t for the fact that the security that the Embassy hired protected me, I would have been in the hospital.”
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) with Assembly Executive Bryan Ardouny after the press conference
When Senator Markey held a press conference in Baku on Saturday, November 16, 2024, he noted that about 50 reporters showed up. When the question of Nagorno-Karabakh came up, he stated that Azerbaijan should release the political prisoners and that the more than 100,000 Armenians that have been displaced out of Nagorno-Karabakh have a “right of return,” and stressed as well the importance of a peace agreement.
“After that, I was then surrounded by the reporters, all wanting to talk not about COP, but just from an Azerbaijani perspective, just about this issue. So it’s pretty clear, as Frank said, for all intents and purposes, it’s state controlled media. And so we saw that and like Frank, I felt that. I had to have a bodyguard with me at all times, even in the lobby of my hotel, even going up to my room,” said Sen. Markey.
The hostility towards Sen. Markey and Rep. Pallone are rooted in their calls for consequences for Azerbaijan following the ethnic cleansing campaign they conducted in 2023 in Nagorno-Karabakh against 100,000 ethnic Armenians.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a strictly non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
Armenian Assembly of America