On 19 November, US Congressperson Frank Pallone wrote on X that he had been effectively forced out of Azerbaijan by government-affiliated provocateurs acting to prevent his participation in the COP29 climate change conference in Baku. 

In his post, Pallone wrote that ‘Despite (Azerbaijani President Ilham) Aliyev organising a violent protest to prevent me, Senator (Ed) Markey and others from participating to COP29, I’ll continue to fight for Armenian’s territorial sovereignty, the release of Armenian prisoners, and a peace deal that brings calm to the region’. 

The post was shared after Pallone had already left the country. 

Pallone, a long-serving member of the Democratic Party from New Jersey, is a well-known advocate of Armenian issues and a co-chair of the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus.

Pallone’s participation in the caucus and his role in promoting other Armenian causes was covered and widely circulated amongst pro-government Azerbaijani media and organisations.

Individuals belonging to both pro-government media and NGOs were already waiting for Pallone at the airport on Saturday. Upon his arrival,  they followed him all the way to his hotel, waving posters that said, ‘Pallone, ask apologies from Azerbaijan or get out’, or ‘Serve the people, not the payout’. 

Pallone attempted to avoid the questions and accusations, but was unable to attend a meeting in the COP29 building. The following day, he cancelled all his remaining meetings and left Azerbaijan on a chartered plane. According to Pallone’s office, the congressperson ‘avoided physical harm only through the efforts of [the] State Department’. 

As Pallone returned to the US, his office shared a statement about his visit to Azerbaijan. 

‘Pallone was excluded by President Ilham Aliyev from a bipartisan meeting between Aliyev and members of Congress. Pallone had requested the meeting on behalf of the House of Representatives delegation travelling to Baku only to be specifically excluded. Pallone has consistently championed regional peace and condemned Azerbaijan’s military attack and ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh’, the statement read. 

‘Ít is outrageous and very telling that President Aliyev would try to silence members of the US Congress and prevent critical discussions on human rights and justice for the Armenian people, even behind closed doors’, the statement added, directly quoting Pallone.  

‘I was proud that the bipartisan delegation stressed the point to President Aliyev that the US government regardless of party does not want any more conflict in the region… and that differences between Azerbaijan and Armenia can only be resolved through peaceful means’, the statement continued, citing Pallone and Markey. 

‘Pallone […] was hopeful that COP29 would be an opportunity for constructive dialogue with Azerbaijani officials that would lead to peace accords with Armenia, but their hopes were dashed by President Aliyev’, the statement concluded. 

At the same time, the organisations which gathered near the hotel and the airport shared a statement claiming that they were attacked during a confrontation with Pallone’s security guards. Several alleged that they were injured during the incident. Members of the pro-government organisations demanded an investigation of their complaints. Based on a list shared by pro-government media, none of the groups involved were independent civil society organisations. 

Besides promoting Armenian issues, Pallone has also advocated for civil rights in Azerbaijan.

In particular, he has pushed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden to take more decisive steps to secure the release of Azerbaijani economist Gubad Ibadoglu, who was arrested on charges widely seen as politically motivated while visiting home in 2023. Prior to his arrest, Ibadoglu had been living in the US since 2014, and worked as a professor at Rutgers University located in Pallone’s congressional district.

It is unclear which issue prompted the ire of Azerbaijani authorities. 

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.