gamavor

When I'm telling you that for all practical purposes USA is a Turkish whore you don't believe me. Here, read it! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/opinion/danger-racial-profiling-america.html Seeing Danger in a Face By ALEX BASTIAN OCT. 27, 2017 San Francisco — Every day, American citizens are detained in windowless rooms at international airports with little to no scrutiny. I am not referring to airports in some foreign country; I am referring to our airports here in the United States. I know, because it happened to me. Earlier this month, I was returning to San Francisco from a trip to Armenia and Greece. Without a single question, but with careful scrutiny of my face and Middle Eastern features, an agent from the Department of Homeland Security at San Francisco International Airport ordered me to a room in the back of the terminal. As I headed to the detention area, I had many thoughts racing through my head. The biggest one, however, was practical: How does detaining, based on his appearance, a San Francisco prosecutor who has spent most of his professional career advancing public safety, make America safer? After about an hour of waiting, my interrogator came to ask me some questions. He asked me about my trip to Armenia, whether I had attempted to sneak into Turkey or Syria during my vacation, whether I had visited any refugee camps and whether I had joined any groups like ISIS. These are astoundingly ignorant questions. For one thing, I am an Armenian-American whose family escaped the Lebanese Civil War over 35 years ago. As a descendant of the Armenian Genocide, a genocide perpetrated by Turks, there is absolutely no logical reason I would sneak into Turkey from Armenia (especially since Turkey has blockaded that border). Furthermore, as an Armenian, I am a Christian, and as Armenians in Syria and Iraq have experienced, meeting with jihadist groups would have led to my kidnapping and possible beheading. It wasn’t until some time into my questioning that the officer asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a prosecutor in the San Francisco district attorney’s office, a fact that could have been revealed with a simple Google search. My detention ended shortly after that information came to light. What never came to light, however, is why they detained me in the first place. They never gave me a straight answer, and I have very few avenues for recourse. My detention was well within the rules. The ham-handed nature of my interrogation is worth recounting, because it points to the nature of racial profiling, and its widespread use at our borders. Even if I had been a Muslim American, what connection would my appearance or religion have to my potential risk to national security? To answer that question, one must first try to understand why racial profiling occurs. It is born from misplaced and unjustified fear, among other more morally bankrupt reasons. That fear creates racist policies in our country, and not just at our borders: You can see it in the over-policing of predominantly African-American neighborhoods, the over-incarceration of African-Americans, the calls for mass deportations of Latino immigrants and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. In each case, one’s identity, or skin color, or religion is taken as sufficient evidence of a dangerous intent. Some will try to disavow the racism by saying that these traits are simply a convenient proxy, but it amounts to the same thing. If you detain Muslims at the airport because of a stereotype about Muslims and terror, the problem isn’t them. I am not saying there should not be extensive security at airports. As someone in law enforcement, I believe wholeheartedly that there should be. But the current policy of detaining people at airports based on the way they look is not only unconstitutional, it also fails to make us safe. Racial profiling fails all of us because we all know danger comes from people who can look like anyone. Profiling also loses the hearts and minds of the citizens the government is supposed to be working for. It begets the question: If my country does not love me, why should I continue to love my country? And if I as a public servant am beginning to have that question creep in my mind, what are others thinking on our streets and in our airports? I went back and forth about writing this. Perhaps, it would have been in my best interest to let the incident go. However, I’ve been racially profiled at the airport before — and so have my brother, my father and most likely hundreds if not thousands of other American citizens who look just like me. I’ve also been profiled in the streets. These experiences are part of why I became a prosecutor: to find a way to be part of the solution rather than complain about the problem. But these experiences are taxing. I can’t change my face, I can’t change my features, nor should I have to fly overseas in a tuxedo to make airport authorities feel more at ease. We are a nation of laws, and no policy should be above some level of accountability and scrutiny. And, at the very least, as an American citizen, I should be constitutionally entitled to know why I have been detained. The minute we stop being a nation of laws is when we no longer are the United States of America. Alex Bastian is the deputy chief of staff at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and a native San Franciscan.

"In Armenia, Tigran is seated surrounded with that power which has wrested Asia from the Parthians, which carries Greek colonies into Media, subdues Syria and Palestine and cuts off the Seleucids." Allegedly these are the words of Lucullos recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch. It is also known that Cicero said of King Tigran: " "He made the Republic of Rome tremble before the powers of his arms." Both references are from http://www.hyeetch.nareg.com.au/armenians/history_p1.html. I'm trying to trace the words of Cicero to any historical writing with no avail. Any clue?

After my last trip to the country, Im absolutely convinced that tree planting should be made a national cause.

Having apps and software is fine, but this is an area in dire need of improvement and not only improvement but someone has to start up from a scratch. Virtually there are no, or very little properly marked mountain trails, let alone eco-trails, etc... It is pity because Armenia has so much to offer to hikers, bikers, and just ordinary mountain lovers.

American - Armenian guy trekking experience from South to North. A little bit crazy in my view but commendable. I did something similar but not that extreme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAg_i5AgYE8

http://www.tert.am/en/news/2017/09/16/cnn-azerbaijan/2485453 Additional revelations over Azerbaijans corruption scheme that have come about in the last couple of days have exposed a former CNN employees role in the scandal. The report called Azerbaijani Laundromat by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that former CNN producer Eckart Sager received nearly $2.6 million from British companies including Hilux Services. The money was transferred to Sagers account in the UAE. The revelation notes that Sager, receiving money from Azerbaijan, published articles propagating the Azerbaijani visions on various issues or defended pro-Azerbaijani figures, Asbarez reports. One of the articles defends Italian parliamentarian Luca Volontè accused of receiving money from Azerbaijan and reviewing the report by the PACE on human rights violations in Azerbaijan, reads the article that exposes Azerbaijani corruption deals. Banking records revealing some 2.5 billion euro (US$ 2.9 billion) in transactions were leaked to the Danish newspaper Berlingske, which shared them with OCCRP. The two outlets then organized a collaborative investigation to track down where the money went. According to the Project, the money was spent on bribing European politicians, decision-makers, journalists and other figures to make pro-Azerbaijani decisions or depict Azerbaijan under favorable light. In addition on September 14, former Azerbaijan Ambassador to the EU, Arif Mammadov announced another recent update on his Facebook page regarding the Azerbaijan Laundromat. The former ambassador wrote that the next revelation linked to this corruption scheme is involving a sex-scandal with the participation of Azerbaijan authorities and MEPs. I have already written that the key lobbyist of Azerbaijan in France, the President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel and his wife are perverted and, sorry for giving so many details, they are fond of orgies. Almost all of the lobbyists have sexual deviations and strange sexual preferences. Baku was one of the beloved places for fun of different senators and MEPs. They come to Azerbaijan under the pretext of a working visit, but in reality they come to Baku for intimate relations and of course, its Azerbaijan who pays for all these. The hotel rooms where those meetings took place were equipped with cameras in advance and the authorities have videotaped everything. I think our authorities, reading all these, will understand that I know much more, reads Mammadovs post on Facebook. The former ambassador believes that footage might come to surface now there everything is out in the open. The European parliament has called for an investigation into revelations by the Guardian and media partners that Azerbaijan ran a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) slush fund to pay influential Europeans to paint a positive image of the authoritarian regime. MEPs have demanded a comprehensive investigation into attempts by Azerbaijan and other autocratic regimes to influence European decision-makers through illicit means.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210503491767249&set=a.1162936237271.2023652.1343818590&type=3

http://allinnet.info/history/the-creation-of-israel-and-plans-on-armenia/ The Creation of Israel and Plans on Armenia London, Versailles, and San Remo Conferences At the three conferences, the Jews were represented by Theodor Herzel (founder of the World Zionist Organization) and Chaim Weizmann (the first president of Israel and the World Zionist Organization). Armenians were represented by Dashnaktsutyun Party members Boghos Nubar (Պօղոս Նուպար) and Avetis Aharonian (Ավետիս Ահարոնեան). The London conference was convened in October 1918 for the discussion of the issue of dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in order to agree on some of the most important and fundamental questions in preparation for the later peaceful parley. At the conference, the UK was represented by Lloyd George, Lord Nathaniel Curzon, and Arthur Balfour, France was represented by Georges Clemenceau, Ferdinand Foch, and Maxime Weygand, and the US by Woodrow Wilson and Edward House. The conference at Downing Street would decide the post-war fate of Germany and Turkey. When debate on the fate of Constantinople began, none of those present offered to return the ancient capital of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks. The Armenian and Jewish issues received great attention during the conference. The question of creating the state of Greater Armenia is related to a problem, Lord Curzon argued, It is related to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Besides, the Supreme Council had to consider various future opportunities. Particularly important was the possibility of a broad Pan-Muslim or Pan-Turkic movement, and therefore, it would be beneficial to draw a line between the Muslims of Turkey and the Muslims of other eastern countries. Such a line could be the Christian community in the form of a new Armenian state. Another line drawn between Africa and the Muslims of the Middle East would be a Jewish state in Palestine. At the same time, the leaders of the Entente believed that the historical Armenian problem was similar to the Zionist problem. The Zionists did not try to substantiate their claims by the numbers of the Jewish population in Palestine. In Palestine, the 65,300 Jews were only the 10 percent of the population, while there were 515,000 Muslims and 62,000 Christians. In addition, there were 150 Samaritans and 4,900 people of other nationalities. Some of the assurances given to the Armenians were, in fact, obligations. Lord Curzon and Alexandre Millerand suggested to include Erzurum in Armenia. However, Lloyd George and Francesco Nitti were against it. Supporters of Curzon believed that before the war in the region of Erzurum, there were 360 thousand Turks and 160 thousand Armenians and that there once was widely spread Greater Armenia, and leaving the city in the hands of the Turks was rendering the independent existence of Armenia impossible. Taking into account all these circumstances, the Allies included the city of Erzurum in the planned state of Greater Armenia and provided for access to the Mediterranean Sea via Armenian Cilicia. The UK, as the most experienced colonial power, foresaw the further course of events much better than others. On the one hand, it acted as the initiator of the creation of the state of Greater Armenia in order to chain Armenia to the West, and on the other, according to Lloyd George, didnt want to take care of the newly born state itself. They planned to transfer the concern for the new state to another power, primarily, the United States. After Armistice of Mudros and until the first half of 1919, the UK wanted to seize control over Armenia. They abandoned this idea since the second half of 1919 and withdrew their troops the state. According to Lloyd George, the UK couldnt allocate funds for the maintenance of the British garrison in Armenia, but spent millions for the same purposes in Palestine. According to the Zionist Eder, in 1922, the UK spent 2 million 24 thousand pounds on the British garrison and gendarmerie in Palestine. By this period, the Zionists planned to move 5 of the 13 million Jews scattered around the world to there. At the London conference, the leaders of the states of Entente received both Armenian and Jewish leaders. On February 19, Wilson received Duryan, Hakobyan, and on April 18, Boghos Nubar and Avetis Aharonian. They were also received by the leaders of the UK, France, Italy. Boghos Nubar and Avetis Aharonian represented the Armenians at the London conference while the Zionists were represented by P. Sokolov. On February 27, 1919, Sokolov read out excerpts from a preliminary memorandum sent to him, The Zionist organization respectfully proposes the following draft for the consideration by the Conference. The parties recognized the historical right of Jewish people to Palestine and the right of Jews to create their own national center in Palestine. In his speech, Dr. Weizmann said that the Zionists wanted to establish in Palestine under the mandate of a great power, such an administration, not necessarily Jewish, that would give the possibility of relocating thousands of Jews to Palestine. They also wanted to tell their fellows in Ukraine, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe that Palestine offers promising prospects. After long discussions, the British Mandate over Palestine was finally formulated. In order to implement political article 22 of the League of Nations, the Council of the League of Nations, taking into account that the main Powers have agreed on this issue, decided to transfer the mandate over administering the territory belonging to the Ottoman Empire to the elected mandate-holders within the possible established boundaries. The pact included 28 articles. From January 12, 1919, to January 21, 1920, in Versailles and during the Paris Peace Conference, the victorious powers summed up their activity. To facilitate the solution of their problems, the Allied Supreme Council was replaced by the Council of Ten and then Four the UK, the US, France, and Italy. These powers decided the fate of Germany and Turkey. Leading the US delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, US President Woodrow Wilson proposed the creation of the League of Nations and the transfer of the former colonial possessions of the defeated countries to its disposal for equal use by all world powers. A compromise decision to transfer the German colonies and Turkish possessions to the League of Nations was made. However, those possessions would be transferred to the leading nations as mandated territories (i.e., with a right of temporary possession established by the mandate of the League). Thus, France received Syria, the UK gained control over Palestine. Other Arab countries were declared independent states. US President Woodrow Wilson sought to take a mandate over Armenia. Greece, with the support of the UK, claimed its ancient capital, Constantinople, Smyrna, and a number of other lands. The Issues of Armenia and the Jewish state were subject to further consideration at the conference in San Remo. So, the leaders of the Entente reconstructed the map of the world and laid the foundation of the Israeli state in the Middle East on one hand and the creation of an Armenian state on the other. It was yet only on paper, which left it to the mercy of fate. In the peace treaty Allies developed, Armenia, as one European diplomat said, was put under a question mark. Nobody wanted to take the state under their guardianship and protection from the aggression of Atatürk and Lenin. In April 1920, the Allies gathered again, this time in San Remo. Lloyd George said about the desertion of the US as the Senate rejected the request of the US president to take a mandate over Armenia. But the first deserter, of course, was Lloyd George himself, and only then the others. The US Senate determined that tens of thousands of American soldiers would be needed to protect Armenia from the combined forces of Turkey and Soviet Russia, which wasnt appropriate for the Senate. For the same reason, the UK withdrew its troops from Transcaucasia. No power of the Entente took on the role of the defender of Armenia. They, on one hand, made it clear to the representatives of Armenia who attended the conference that the Allies cannot allocate a single soldier for the defense of Armenia. On the other hand, they continued to discuss the plan for the creation of the state. This time, a discussion on whether or not to include the city of Erzurum into the future Armenian state started. Boghos Nubar ***** gave a speech at one of the meetings. Aharonians turn was on the next day. They did not demand the Allies to sign an agreement like the Zionists. They also did not ask for law-enforced shelter and military assistance. They only asked for weapons, ammunition, and uniform in hopes of liberation of Erzurum and defense of the country located in a hostile region and cut off from its allies. The situation of the Zionists was completely different. They had the Balfour Declaration. On April 25, 1920, in San Remo, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers decided to submit a mandate of the UK on Palestine to fulfill the Balfour Declaration. Here is the text of this resolution: To execute the § 22 pact of the League of Nations, the administration of Palestine is also entrusted to the mandator. The choice of the mandator and the establishment of the borders of Palestine will be determined by the leading allied powers. The application regarding the establishment of a state of Jews in Palestine, which was originally presented on November 8, 1917, by the British government and recognized by other allied governments, was accepted. A special commission with the chairman appointed by the League of Nations will be instructed to study and resolve all issues and all claims from various religious communities in Palestine. The terms of the mandates will be established by the allied powers and submitted to the Council of the League of Nations for approval. As for Armenia, the Council could not ignore one circumstance. The fact is that the Entente waged war under the slogan of the liberation of small nations. And in this game, the Armenian card was a trump designed to create a favorable public opinion in Europe and the US. The conference in San Remo solved the issue politically by recognizing the necessity of the joining of the Armenian regions of the vilayets of Erzurum, Trebizond, Van, and Bitlis to Armenia ethnographically. At the same time, the council asked the US president to establish the borders of the four vilayets to be transferred. The Council also decided to internationalize the Batumi port and make it a common maritime outlet for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The decision to transfer this territory to Armenia was included in the Treaty of Sevres with Turkey, and its government agreed to the recognition of any decision of President Wilson. However, the Council did not support the resolution with international legal norms that could ensure its implementation. The Armenian question, unlike the Jewish question, remained hanging in the air, like a big question mark. And they still are waiting for the decision.

Now the time has come to investigate Eurovision:) https://lovinmalta.com/news/news-breaking/embarrassing-report-claims-azerbaijan-considers-malta-a-province Azerbaijani oligarchs consider Malta to be one of its provinces, according to an extensive report into how the South Caucasus nation uses caviar diplomacy to buy the influence of Western politicians. According to our sources in Baku, Malta is considered by Azerbaijani oligarchs as one of the provinces of Azerbaijan, the report by the Civic Solidarity Platform, published in March, states. Malta is one of the key locations where corrupt Azerbaijani officials kept their money in offshore banks, along with Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Dubai, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. The report flags how Maltas Speaker Anglu Farrugia had led several delegations to observe elections in Azerbaijan and how he always spoke positively of them, ignoring electoral fraud and gross human rights violations. In October 2013, Farrugia described the presidential elections in Azerbaijan as 'fair, democratic and transparent', the report states. His assessment sharply conflicted with that of ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) observers who said they had documented widespread irregularities, including ballot-box stuffing and what appeared to be fraudulent counting. The report questions the timing of Farrugias 2013 visit to Azerbaijan, noting it came only a few days before the ElectroGas consortium, which includes Azerbaijani state-owned Socar Trading, won a bid to construct and operate a LNG power station in Delimara. Farrugia, a former Labour deputy leader, visited Azerbaijan again in 2015 when the country held controversial parliamentary elections, and again the following year to observe a constitutional referendum, as head of a mission by the European Academy of Elections Observation. The report also flags former Labour MP Joe Debono Grechs close links with Azerbaijan, noting he was in 2009 appointed co-rapporteur on human rights in Azerbaijan by the Council of Europes parliamentary assembly PACE, getting the role ahead of a Norwegian MP known for her human rights credentials. Later, when Debono Grech left this position, during a PACE debate on Azerbaijan in 2015 he failed to make any mention of imprisoned human rights activist Annar Mammadli, after having himself flagged Mammadlis politically motivated imprisonment in 2013, the report reads. In a debate on a new report on Azerbaijans ailing democratic institutions he complained that Azerbaijan was never absent from the Parliamentary Assemblys agenda and warned that the oil and gas-rich republic could head down the road of Libya or Iraq if president Ilham Aliyev is removed. It adds Debono Grech was part of a scheme developed by key Azerbaijani lobbyists in PACE to defeat a human rights report condemning the Aliyev regimes treatment of political prisoners. Simon Busuttil questions Malta links to Azerbaijan slush fund Earlier today, outgoing PN leader Simon Busuttil questioned whether any Maltese politician has benefited from a secret $2.8 billion slush fund, which Azerbaijanis elite had used to bribe European politicians as part of their caviar diplomacy.

"Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO Elmar Mammadyarov called the cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO fruitful and mutually beneficial." Couldn't put it better!!!

All these should not stop here. Armenian authorities through diplomatic channels as well as the UN should request thorough investigation, esp. with regards to Bokova end company. For Christ sake, on top of everything she gave UNESCO's Mozart prize to Mehriban Alieva. The later I'm sure did not know how to hold a violin.

Before being accused of using harsh language, I would like to explain my words. Irina Bokova is an offspring of Georgi Bokov - a prominent Bulgarian communist rumored that is responsible for the murder of a prominent Bulgarian intellectual and political figure Rajko Alexsiev after the communist takeover of the country. Since the data are very scares of what exactly happened, it is proved that her father was instrumental in the torture of Rajko Alexsiev before his death. Sons and daughters are not responsible for the deeds of their parents, but having been raised in communist Bulgaria and knowing pretty well the background of her surrounding and political elites at the time, she could not know that the foundation which sponsored the event in Paris promoting the "tolerance" of Azerbaijan where everything Armenian is simply banned, is named after Geidar Aliev - the father of the present president of Azerbaijan, and that the former, before becoming a president of Azerbaijan was the head of the KGB in USSR - the most humanistic organization ever! Is sounds like a joke but the truth is that a foundation named after a communist monster sponsors an event to promote the tolerance of Azerbaijan and the chief of UNESCO, Irina Bokova gladly accepts such sponsorship??? What a world we live in!

Now that the Guardian exposed the criminal scheme of Azerbaijan leadership, it all comes to its places. Irina Bokova - the chief of UNESCO felt the urge to organize a symposium on how tolerant Azerbaijan is only after the chief criminal Ilham Aliev send his thugs to destroy medieval Armenian cemetery and thus annihilate more than 10 000 Cross stones (khachkars) declared by the very same UNESCO in the 70s of the last century as World cultural heritage. In the process her husband Kalin Mitrev, was paid 450 000 pounds by an Azerbaijani company registered in London for consultancy services.

The Guardian did a good job! I'm curious if the name of Pedro Agramunt would surface from somewhere in relations to Azerbaijani dirty dealings. https://www.theguardian.com/world/azerbaijan UK at center of secret $3bn Azerbaijani money laundering and lobbying scheme Azerbaijans ruling elite operated a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) scheme to pay prominent Europeans, buy luxury goods and launder money through a network of opaque British companies, an investigation by the Guardian reveals. Leaked data shows that the Azerbaijani leadership, accused of serial human rights abuses, systemic corruption and rigging elections, made more than 16,000 covert payments from 2012 to 2014. Some of this money went to politicians and journalists, as part of an international lobbying operation to deflect criticism of Azerbaijans president, Ilham Aliyev, and to promote a positive image of his oil-rich country. There is no suggestion that all the recipients were aware of the original source of the money. It arrived via a disguised route. But the revelations once again highlight the use of the lightly regulated British corporate landscape to move large sums of money around, beyond the purview of regulators and tax authorities. Seven million pounds was spent in Britain on luxury goods and private school fees. The cash, contributed by an opaque array of paymasters in Azerbaijan and Russia, travelled to the British companies all limited partnerships registered at Companies House in London via the western financial system without raising red flags. One of Europes leading banks, Danske, processed the payments via its branch office in Estonia. Danske Bank said money laundering and other illegal practices had taken place. It first noticed the irregular payments in 2014. Estonias financial regulator said systems designed to stop money laundering at the branch had failed. The scheme has been nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat. Confidential banking records were leaked to the Danish newspaper Berlingske and shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Guardian, and other media partners. The data covers a 30-month period. It may show the tip of an iceberg. The politicians The leaked bank records show multiple payments to several former members of the Council of Europes parliamentary assembly, Pace. One is Eduard Lintner, a German ex-MP and member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkels ruling Christian Democrats. Another is the Italian former chair of the centre-right group in Pace, Luca Volontè. The payments came at a time when Azerbaijan was under fire for arresting human rights activists and journalists, and for holding rigged elections. The regime sought to blunt criticism from Europe and the US by allegedly bribing delegates in what has been called caviar diplomacy. This intensive lobbying operation was so successful that Council of Europe members voted against a 2013 report critical of Azerbaijan. Lintner stood down as an MP in 2010, but remained a firm supporter of Azerbaijan. He founded the Society for the Promotion of German-Azerbaijani Relations in Berlin, which received 819,500 (£755,000). One 61,000 payment was made two weeks after Lintner returned to Berlin from a trip to Azerbaijan where he monitored the countrys 2013 presidential election. He said the poll was up to German standards in direct contrast to official election observers who found significant problems. Lintner says he received the money for his society, did not personally benefit, and was not an MP or Council of Europe member at the time. An Azerbaijani NGO paid for his election trip, he says. He says he has no knowledge of the original source of the payments received. Details of cash given to Volontè emerged in 2016 and caused outrage. He received more than 2m in instalments via his Italian-based Novae Terrae foundation. Prosecutors in Milan have indicted him for money laundering and corruption. Advertisement Volontè denies wrongdoing. He is seeking to have the case thrown out. The data also shows money being paid via the British companies to Kalin Mitrev, a Bulgarian appointed last year to the board of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Mitrev received at least 425,000 for private consulting work from a local Azeri company, Avuar Co. He acknowledges the payments and says they were for legitimate business consultancy. He denies all knowledge of the conduit used to execute them or the original source of the funds. All the income, generated by activities in different countries, was duly reported and taxed in my country of residence, Bulgaria, Mitrev said. His consultancy work stopped when he joined the London bank, he said. The revelation that her husband consulted for an Azeri company might prove awkward for Mitrevs wife, Irina Bokova, who is the director general of Unesco. Bokova has bestowed one of Unescos highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijans first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. She also hosted a photo exhibition at Unescos headquarters in Paris, entitled Azerbaijan A Land of Tolerance. The Heydar Aliyev foundation organized the event. Asked by the Guardian whether there was a conflict between her husbands work and her UN role, she strongly denied this, saying she had no knowledge of her husbands business affairs. As a director general of a UN agency, my duty is to develop sound working relations with all members of the organisation in conformity with the policies set by member states. Azerbaijan is not an exception in this respect. I am immensely proud of my determined pursuit of the mandate of Unesco, including in the area of human rights, freedom of expression and the safety of journalists. The lobbyists Advertisement Large sums from the scheme were spent on lobbying. In 2014 Eckart Sager, a former CNN producer based in London, received nearly 2m from the British companies. His PR company is linked to articles that promote the Azerbaijani government and its views. One piece denies wrongdoing by Baku in the Volontè case. Sager did not comment. Another beneficiary is a London-based Azeri, Jovdat Guliyev, who received 25 payments totalling almost £400,000. Guliyev is a member of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society, a lobby group co-chaired by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord German. Guliyev did not respond to repeated messages asking him for a comment. The British connection The four firms at the centre of the Azerbaijani Laundromat were all limited partnerships registered in the UK. They were: Metastar Invest, based at a service address in Birmingham; Hilux Services and Polux Management, set up in Glasgow; and LCM Alliance, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Their corporate partners are anonymous tax haven entities based in the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Belize. L Burke Files, an international financial investigator, said these company structures were purposefully opaque. Foreign criminals used Scottish limited partnerships, or SLPs, he said. In June the government announced SLPs would have to name their significant owners, or pay fines, amid evidence of growing fraud. No one suspects Scotland. Its never been on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of non-compliant countries, Files said. If you are going to launder money its probably best not to run it between Russia, Malta and the Cayman Islands. Does Scotland raise a red flag in your mind? No. All four British companies are named as payment channels in the Italian prosecution case against Volontè. They have since been dissolved. Luxury services The banking data shows that the Azerbaijani fund was used for a wide variety of purposes. More than $2.9bn went to companies, with about $50m paid out to individuals. Many beneficiaries were retail and service firms in western Europe. In all probability, they would have been unaware of the origins of the payments they were receiving. Some of the 200 money transfers to the UK concerned education. In 2014 £89,800 was transferred to Queen Ethelburgas Collegiate, a private boarding school in York. The school would not identify the pupil or pupils involved or comment. There were payments to the tuition college Bellerbys and to the ICS international school in London. Bellerbys said it was investigating. The data suggests there were a number of relatively modest bursaries to regime-connected Azerbaijani students studying in Britain, as well as rental deposits on upmarket London flats. Other purchases included designer dresses, luxury cars and legal fees. There is no suggestion the UK recipients should have known about the provenance of the money. Azerbaijans ruling family is not directly named. But the evidence of a connection is overwhelming. Large sums come via the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan. This is the largest bank in an oil-wealthy country, and yet earlier this summer it filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. The defence and emergency situations ministries in Baku all chip in cash. The scheme was used to pay for the governments incidental expenses including the medical bills of Yaqub Eyyubov, Azerbaijans first deputy prime minister. There were separate payments to Eyyubovs son Emin, Azerbaijans EU ambassador, and to the presidents press secretary, Azer Gasimov. Business partners of the US president, Donald Trump, in a project to build a luxury Trump Tower in Baku also appear in the Laundromat scheme. The hotels local developer was Anar Mammadov, the billionaire son of Azerbaijans ex-transport minister Ziya Mammadov. At the time the scheme operated, the Mammadovs were one of the countrys most powerful and wealthy families. The Mammadovs Baghlan holding company is linked to Laundromat transactions. In 2012 the Trump Organisation signed a deal with the Mammadovs to build a 33-floor, 130-metre-high ultra-modern skyscraper. In October 2014 Ivanka Trump toured Trump Tower Baku, posting photos of the unfinished building on her Instagram account. The hotel never opened. Trump has since cut his connection with the project. The Laundromat scheme does not link to Trump but raises questions about his choice of business partners. The paymasters Advertisement It is not entirely clear where the money used in the scheme comes from. The Russian government paid $29.4m into the Laundromat via its main weapons company, Rosoboronexport. Several transactions link to another $20bn money-laundering scheme, which operated out of Moscow between 2010 and 2014. The scheme, the Global Laundromat, was exposed in March by the OCCRP, Novaya Gazeta and the Guardian. A mysterious private firm in Baku, Baktelekom MMC, pays in more than $1.4bn. The firm is what fraud experts call a doppelganger entity. It sounds like the state telecoms firm with the same name but bears no relation to it. It doesnt have a website. Its function is unclear. According to the OCCRP, Baktelekom MMC is linked to Mehriban Aliyeva. In January the company was let off a $17.4m tax bill. The Danish bank Danske said it had not been good enough at monitoring suspicious transactions at its Estonian branch. The bank has since tightened procedures and controls and terminated relationships with some customers. We will not accept Danske being exploited for money laundering or other criminal purposes. We will do everything to prevent it from happening again, it said. Madis Reimand, the head of Estonias financial intelligence unit, said his office had come across the suspicious Azerbaijani cash flows in 2013 while analysing a separate case. From there we followed the tracks, he said. We tried to cooperate with the source country in order to ascertain where the money came from. This, however, didnt work out. Reimand said Estonias financial supervisory authority had identified what had gone wrong and taken steps to prevent similar fraud in the future. Since youre here we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we havent put up a paywall we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardians independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters because it might well be your perspective, too. I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. Im happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information. Thomasine F-R. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.

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Good one!

https://trud.bg/350-diplomatic-flights-carry-weapons-for-terrorists/ Read it as it last because someone's gonna get it. The journalist already did. She was fired today. Most likely some of the Bulgarian made weapons sold to Azveristan were used in Artsakh.

I'm reposting this because the link is not working.