COP17's Taboo: Indigenous Lands, But Not Armenian Ones
COP17's theme is indigenous people and their lands. Guess what Armenia can't mention.
One of COP17’s stated themes is preserving the link between indigenous people and their ancestral lands. Asbed asks the obvious question: what topic is taboo at the Yerevan conference? Hovik answers in a sentence, indigenous Armenian land. More than 150,000 Armenians were ethnically cleansed from Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) in September 2023, yet at a summit about indigenous communities they are not allowed a pavilion in the Green Zone, and protests for Artsakh human rights are kept away from the convention areas.
The second example does not even involve Artsakh. Asbed turns to the Shikahogh State Reserve, a lush forest in Syunik near the border, part of the territory Azerbaijan has occupied inside sovereign Armenia. Reports say more than 60 hectares of forest were destroyed and burned. At a biodiversity conference, the hosts note, the one thing you cannot discuss is Armenian biodiversity. The reason, they say, is that raising it would run against the COP presidency, the product of a deal that let Azerbaijan host COP29 the year before.
This moment works as a clip because the hypocrisy is self-evident and emotionally charged. It connects the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and the right of return to an environmental stage that claims to protect exactly the kind of bond between people and land that Armenians have been denied. For audiences following Armenian news, Syunik, and the fate of displaced Artsakh Armenians, it is a tight, damning contrast between a conference’s stated values and what it forbids on Armenian soil.
Transcript
Asbed Bedrossian: One of the themes of COP17 is the preservation of the link between indigenous people and their lands. Hovik, what topic is taboo and disallowed in Armenia at COP17?
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, indigenous Armenian land, of course.
Asbed Bedrossian: That's right. We have 150,000 dispossessed Armenians from Artsakh, and they are not allowed to talk about this topic at COP17. They are not allowed to have a pavilion at the Green Zone, which is for this kind of stuff. And the protests for Artsakh's human rights are being kept away from all COP17 convention areas. The other one doesn't even have to do with Artsakh. It has to do with Armenia proper. It's the Shikahogh State Reserve, which is a lush forest area that is in Syunik province, adjacent to the border with Azerbaijan, basically that Kovsakan and Zangelan region. territory actually falls within the 200 square kilometers that we were talking about earlier that Azerbaijan has invaded and taken over. Well, reports are that they have destroyed and burned over 60 hectares of lush forestry. And, Hovik, guess what we're not allowed to talk about at COP17? Biodiversity.