The World Council of Churches said that the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, known as the COP29, to be held in Baku next month, creates a “unique opportunity” for Azerbaijan to release Armenian hostages who are being held by that country.

“COP29presentsa unique opportunity to advocate for the unconditional release of the 23 Armenian hostages, as well asthe Azerbaijani political prisoners and journalistsdetained inAzerbaijani jails,” the WCC said in a statement.

“The military aggression against the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh in September-October 2020, followed by the ten-month-long total blockade of the Lachin corridor and the forced displacement of around 120,000 Armenians from their ancestral lands in September 2023, remains a critical concern,” the WCC statement added.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, serves as president of the World Council of Churches for the Oriental Orthodox churches, Azerbaijan reports.

The international religious body also announced that it was hosting a day of prayer for Armenia at the St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva on November 10, one day before the COP29 will kick off in Baku.

“The World Council of Churches is inviting all people of good will to join a prayer day for Armenia – for peace, for support for refugees, and the release of war hostages – on 10 November, the day before the opening of the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan,” the WCC said in its statement.