“The World Cannot Stand By and Watch Azerbaijan Greenwash Crimes Against Armenians”: Greta Thunberg

TBILISI (Armradio.am)– Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has revealed plans to visit Armenia in the near future.

“I am looking forward to go to Armenia and meet activists and citizens and to hear more about the horrors that they have had to go through in recent years,” she said in an exclusive interview with Public Radio of Armenia.

“It’s heartbreaking that the world has for so many times forgotten about them [Armenians] and their struggles and in many cases has just watches,” Thunberg said, speaking to Public Radio correspondent Gita Elibekyan in Tbilisi.

“Now with the COP being held in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani regime will most likely use it and is already using it as an opportunity to greenwash their crimes and ethnic cleansing towards Armenians. The world cannot just stand by and watch that happen,” the climate activist said.

Se noted that the repercussions of government critics in the country does not go hand in hand with hosting an international climate conference, either.

Asked about Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, Thunberg said “all political prisoners and hostages must be released.”

“We need to put international pressure on countries to sanction Azerbaijan and stop the import of Azerbaijani fossil fuel not only for climate reasons, but also for human rights reasons. There is an extreme hypocrisy of the rest of the world, where they, for example the EU, are still importing a lot of fossil fuel from Azerbaijan while pretending to stand for human rights,” the climate activist stated.

“While they are importing that fuel, they are also legitimizing Azerbaijan’s crimes against its own population and Armenians. We should not forget that Azerbaijan is absolutely fundamental to the Israeli war-machine and they are also complicit in the genocide in Palestine, war crimes in Lebanon. Azerbaijan exports 40 percent of Israel’s annual oil consumption, which is just one of many-many reasons we have to put immense pressure on the country,” Thunberg said.