By Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday rejected what he called a “disgusting” letter from U.S. lawmakers who criticized his country’s human rights record and urged it to free political prisoners before it hosts next month’s COP29 climate conference.

The letter, signed by nearly 60 lawmakers, urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, to enable a more conducive environment for successful diplomacy at COP29”.

It stated that “provocative” Azerbaijani statements towards Armenia risked undermining peace negotiations between the two countries, which have fought two wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Speaking in Jabrayil, a town recaptured from Armenian forces in a 2020 war, Aliyev called the letter “a disgusting appeal that cannot influence our will” and said it had been drawn up “to threaten and accuse us”.

Azerbaijan’s human rights record, including the detention of journalists and activists, is under increasing scrutiny as it prepares to welcome delegates and media from around the world to the November climate conference.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, stated that Azerbaijan’s hosting of the event should not be turned into “a political tool”. He accused critics of seeking to deflect attention away from climate action.

Representatives of Ruben Vardanyan, a former Russian investment banker who was a top official in the ethnic Armenian leadership of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, filed lawsuits this week claiming he has been tortured, defamed by the media, and denied his rights to a speedy trial in Azerbaijan.

Vardanyan has been detained for the past year since Baku’s forces staged a lightning offensive to retake Karabakh, an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since breaking away in the 1990s.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general responded to the complaint that all of Vardanyan’s rights were being respected and that he had received a dozen visits from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“His right to the presumption of innocence was not violated by the prosecutor’s office or other state bodies, and he was not subjected to inhuman treatment or torture,” the prosecutor’s office stated to Reuters.

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, which Baku denies. The two countries have engaged in sporadic talks over a peace treaty for the past year.

Aliyev on Friday accused Armenia of insincerity regarding a deal and of rearming for fresh fighting, warning it to “stop these dangerous games!”

Armenia, having withdrawn from several Azerbaijani border villages it controlled, has recently claimed that Azerbaijan does not seem interested in signing a treaty.