Armenian Montrealers 'heartbroken' Canada is attending Azerbaijan-hosted COP29

Armenian Montrealer Lusine Dadayan spent days trying to get ahold of her aunts, uncles and cousins living in Nagorno-Karabakh when she heard news of their village being attacked last year.

The region in western Asia, referred to as Artsakh by Armenians and internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been caught in a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched an offensive and claimed all of the disputed territory. Nearly 120,000 ethnic Armenians found themselves in exile.

Members of Montreal's Armenian diaspora are perplexed by Canada's participation in COP29, the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference, pointing to human rights abuses committed against their people by the host country, Azerbaijan.

They say Canada's attendance legitimizes Azerbaijan's actions. 

In December 2022, Azerbaijan blocked the territory's only road to Armenia and the outside world. That blockade tightened in June 2023, with even Red Cross vehicles bringing crucial humanitarian aid barred from the region. 

Ethnic Armenians there endured with little food, medicine or electricity in near-starvation conditions.

"People didn't even have their phones working or electricity to charge phones and take pictures of all the atrocities that were happening," said Dadayan.

During the blockade, she remembers struggling to reach her family.

"From December 2022 to September 2023, they were just subjected to starvation. I felt so guilty each time I was having a meal here in Canada because I was thinking about them not having a piece of bread to eat," she said. 

Dadayan's relatives were among the displaced last year and now live in Armenia.

She says she's no longer able to visit her grandparents' graves or the home she grew up in.  

"They don't know what to say, what to do, but they are dreaming of going back to their homes," she said. "People live without any purpose."

Now, she wonders why Canada is participating in a conference hosted by the country that forced her family from their homes.

"I am heartbroken," said Dadayan.

"The Canadian government or the West in general, when they want to act, they act. We have seen their actions against Russia, putting sanctions on Russia. Why are they having this double standard?"

Need to 'shed light'

Talia Jabrayan, a member of the Armenian Youth Federation's Montreal/Laval chapter, says she is disappointed in Canada taking part in the conference.

Although she understands that the Canadian government might find it important to be present, Jabrayan doesn't believe that Azerbaijan should have the "honour" of hosting Canadian parliamentarians. 

"If they do want to attend, we are asking that they use the COP29 conference as a platform to shed light on Azerbaijan's human rights abuses," she said. 

She added that Canada should call for the release of Armenian prisoners of war.

In a statement sent to CBC News, the office of Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who's attending COP29, said he wouldn't stop advocating for "meaningful dialogue achieving a sustainable and inclusive resolution of the issues and the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan." 

"But Canada is attending COP29 to advocate for ambitious climate action and collaborate with like-minded countries," read the statement. "These summits must remain spaces for global accountability in the fight against the climate crisis, free from exploitation by regimes seeking to clean their image."

Jabrayan insists that the Canadian delegation refuse to visit lands captured by Azerbaijan, "especially over the past year after the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh." 

She says Azerbaijan is using this opportunity as a "smokescreen" to sweep atrocities under the rug.

"It's been a little over a year that 120,000 people were completely stripped of their right to live in their homeland. However, Azerbaijan, by hosting a climate conference, is choosing to instead focus on what it claims to be its qualifications as a champion of climate change and environmental issues," she said. 

How did we get here? 

The roots of the conflict go back to Soviet times. The territory, despite an overwhelmingly large majority of ethnic Armenians and an Azeri minority, was incorporated into Soviet Azerbaijan and was autonomous. After the region tried to unify with Armenia in 1988, a conflict broke out.

Tensions escalated into a war. In December 1991, the enclave's majority ethnic Armenian population overwhelmingly voted to declare independence. Azerbaijani authorities never recognized the results of the referendum.

The war in the region ended in 1994, killing an estimated 30,000 and leaving ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia in control of the region.

Over 700,000 ethnic Azeris were driven from their homes in the disputed territory, Armenia and seven surrounding Azeri districts which Armenia seized. 

And 300,000 to 500,000 ethnic Armenians fled or were expelled from Azerbaijan starting in 1988, according to Human Rights Watch.

Azerbaijan grew rich from oil and built up its army until the military decided to launch an assault in 2020. 

That 44-day war left only a small piece of Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian hands. 

An attempt at 'greenwashing': protester 

Maria Chekhanovich Nerssesian, a member of the Aghmoog Collective, has been organizing protests and artistic performances to draw the attention of Quebecers and the government to the plight of the Armenian people. 

She went to Armenia last year to record testimonies of refugees.

She noted that Canadians don't know much about the history of her people and the current situation in the Asian region. She hopes her and the collective's actions will change that. 

"We are such a small nation and people don't really have context to the Armenian story here. I'm thinking that that's what we need," said Nerssesian. 

She mentioned that Canada, as a country that has colonized Indigenous peoples, has a duty to not repeat history. 

"It's my duty, if I'm here, to work on this here and not let my government do it to other people and continue spreading these crimes," she said.

Her brother, Yon Nerssesian, who's also part of the Aghmoog Collective, says he is scared about Azerbaijan invading Armenia. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, has referred to Armenia as "Western Azerbaijan."

"I see this genocide as a prelude to Azerbaijan's plan to invade all of Armenia," said Yon. "It feels very threatening."

He said COP29 is a "greenwashing attempt" by the country that should be denounced by Canada. 

He pointed to Azerbaijan designating Nagorno-Karabakh a "green energy zone" as evidence of this. He believes it's a way of diverting people's attention from the host country's actions.

Yon and other Armenian Montrealers say they will continue to defend their people's cause.

"It's time to demand that the international community intervenes and sees us and our right to exist as a people and live safely in our homeland," said Yon.