Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in Armenia. Thunberg has been boycotted the 29th Climate Change Conference of Parties, also known as COP29, currently underway in Baku.
Speaking at a protest in Tbilisi, Georgia on Monday, she called the country hosting the summit, Azerbaijan, “an authoritarian petrostate,” while adding that the choice of location was “beyond absurd,” according to WaPo.
She also spoke about the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as other Azeri war crimes against Armenians.
Thunberg was welcomed in Armenia by Oleg Dulgaryan, the Head of Centre for Community Mobilization and Support.
“Together with colleagues, on the Armenia-Georgia border, it is with great responsibility and joy that we welcomed Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who arrived in Armenia, boycotting the ongoing COP-29 in Baku,” Dulgaryan said in a statement on social media. He added that more information about “upcoming processes” will be provided later.
Thunberg on Monday attended a rally in Georgia to protest Azerbaijan hosting the annual United Nations climate talks.
According to AP, she described Azerbaijan as “a repressive, occupying state, which has committed ethnic cleansing, and which is continuing cracking down on Azerbaijani civil society.”
Thunberg charged that Azerbaijan has used the summit as “a chance to greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses,” AP reported.
“We can’t give them any legitimacy in this situation, which is why we are standing here and saying no to greenwashing and no to the Azerbaijani regime,” she said in Tbilisi on Monday.
