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COP29 and Baku's cynicism

2024-09-19

 'As you can see, last year the Azerbaijani police were fighting for ecology in these areas

On November 11-12, 2024, Azerbaijan is set to host the UN's annual Climate Change Conference (COP29). It seems that Baku would be the last place one would expect to hold such an event.

The reality of Azerbaijan, a country 'concerned' with environmental issues, is exposed by the events taking place there. One of the most striking examples is the case of Soyudlu.

Soyudlu is a village in the Gadabay region where the London-based company 'Anglo Asian Mining' constructed a tailings dam 12 years ago and has been operating a gold mine. In 2023, it became known that the company plans to build a second tailings dam. In response, on June 20, 2023, the village residents organized a protest. With placards reading "The future generation is growing up sick," "Gadabay, Shamkir, Tovuz, Gazakh, Ganja, Geranboy, even Baku are in danger," "Nature's voice is not heard because nature is dying," "This is the struggle of the whole nation, not just Gadabay," the villagers expressed their discontent with the mining operations.

The toxic substances released from the tailings dam have created serious ecological problems in the area, causing a number of diseases among the residents. 'Children are born sick; there is no way to cure them. All our trees have dried up, we are breathing poison,' complained the villagers. In addition, the new tailings dam is to be built on the village's pastureland, which will create problems for animal husbandry.

However, the protest ended with the use of brutal force against the residents, especially the elderly people, including the use of rubber batons and tear gas. 'Are we terrorists? We've never seen anything like this in other countries, neither on TV nor anywhere else,' the villagers told about the violence of the police.

During the protest, seven people were arrested, and an elderly woman was fined 1,500 manat (about 900 US dollars), while others were sentenced to 20 days of administrative arrest. The protest continued the next day, but police brutality escalated; the police then surrounded the village, blocking entry and exit. 'We cannot make phone calls, and they do not let us leave the village. If we had the chance, we would go to Baku to raise our voices and express our pain. What have we done to be locked up like this? There are two police officers every 100 meters in the village,' said one of the villagers.

Police brutality became so severe that many residents no longer express their discontent, fearing that their children could be imprisoned on false charges of drug trafficking.

To conceal what happened in the village, the authorities have also banned independent journalists from entering the village, and those journalists who were able to cover the protests on June 20 and 21 were arrested. Journalist Elmaddin Shamilzade was forced to delete videos showing the police brutality against the villagers. The wave of arrests has also extended to a wider circle. A former MP who criticized the actions of the police in the Gadabay region was arrested on charges of embezzlement, and the person who prepared the posters for the protests was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Following the events in Soyudlu, the Azerbaijani authorities imitated an investigation of the consequences of the mine's exploitation by temporarily closing it down. Very soon, the mine resumed its work, and it became known that the authorities had agreed to provide land for the construction of a second tailings dam. According to an investigation by journalists from "Forbidden Stories," the CEO of "Anglo Asian Mining" is a close friend of Ilham Aliyev, and the Azerbaijani government also benefits equally from the mine's exploitation. Furthermore, the company has signed contracts with Pasha Bank, which is owned by Aliyev's father-in-law and daughters. Moreover, years ago, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed the involvement of the Aliyev family in the gold mining business in the country.

It turns out that the Aliyev family uses brute force against its own people to ensure their own profit, silencing them with threats. As a result, the mine continues to operate, planning to expand the tailings dam in the near future. Meanwhile, the residents of Soyudlu breath polluted air and live under severe and deteriorating socio-economic conditions. 43% of Azerbaijan's gold is extracted from the mines of the Gadabay region, yet in reality, it is one of the poorest regions in the country, where even access to natural gas, drinking water, and other communal services is limited for the residents.

Under such circumstances, hosting COP29 in Baku is merely another manifestation of Azerbaijan's caviar diplomacy.

Cartoon by Gunduz Agayev

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