Environmental Activist Greta Thunberg Visits Armenia

YEREVAN (Armenpress) – Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in Armenia after boycotting the ongoing COP-29 summit in Baku. Speaking Monday at a protest in Tbilisi, Georgia, Thunberg criticized Azerbaijan, calling it “an authoritarian petrostate” and describing the choice of Baku as the summit’s host city as “beyond absurd,” according to The Washington Post.

Thunberg also condemned the ethnic cleansing and other war crimes allegedly committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In Armenia, Thunberg was welcomed by Oleg Dulgaryan, Head of the Centre for Community Mobilization and Support (CCMS). “Together with colleagues, on the Armenia-Georgia border, we welcomed Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who arrived in Armenia, boycotting the ongoing COP-29 in Baku,” Dulgaryan announced on social media, adding that more information about “upcoming activities” will be provided later.

Thunberg had participated in a rally in Georgia on Monday to protest Azerbaijan’s hosting of the annual United Nations climate talks. According to the Associated Press, Thunberg described Azerbaijan as “a repressive, occupying state, which has committed ethnic cleansing and continues to crack down on Azerbaijani civil society.” She accused Azerbaijan of using the summit as “an opportunity to greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses.”

“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,” Thunberg said during her speech in Tbilisi on Monday.