WASHINGTON — 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’
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.”
