Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

[MosJan]

Azerbaijan announced about sanction against the USA.


http://haqqin.az/news/59825

 

Азербайджан вводит санкции против США
23 Декабря 2015, 18:29

Как известно, Хельсинкская комиссия США во главе с Кристофером Смитом 17 декабря представила в Конгресс законопроект, предусматривающий введение санкций против Азербайджана, передает пресс-служба Милли Меджлиса.

Законопроект, который носит явный антиазербайджанский характер, предлагает пересмотреть отношения с нашей страной, наложить санкции на азербайджанских чиновников и другие меры, вызвал резкую реакцию Баку.

Заместитель председателя комитета Милли Меджлиса по политике и государственному строительству Ровшан Рзаев выступил с законодательной инициативой выразить свое отношение к антиазербайджанскому документу К.Смита. Депутат Р.Рзаев подготовил проект резолюции Милли Меджлиса «О правах человека в США».

Проект будет рассмотрен на совместном заседании Комитета по международным и межпарламентским связям и Комитетом по правам человека Милли Меджлиса. В документе говорится, что Азербайджан за годы своей независимости неоднократно сталкивался с политикой двойных стандартов со стороны различных организаций США.

В проекте отмечается, что некоторые американские организации под различным предлогом пытаются вмешиваться во внутреннюю и внешнюю политику Азербайджана.

В проекте напоминается о том, что США, которые готовят ежегодные отчеты по правам человека в мире, постоянно изыскивают причины, чтобы не подписывать международные соглашения по правам человека. На сегодняшний день США ратифицировали лишь четыре договора из 14 основополагающих документов ООН, регламентирующих права человека. До сих пор к Конвенции по правам детей не присоединились лишь две страны - Сомали и США.

Проект азербайджанского парламентария предлагает прекратить сотрудничество с США в области энергетики, безопасности и в военной сфере, приостановить участие азербайджанских военных в миротворческой операции в Афганистане, запретить транзит военных и прочих грузов США через территорию Азербайджана, а также использование для этих целей инфраструктуры в Азербайджане, начать процедуру отзыва США с поста сопредседателя Минской группы ОБСЕ

 

 

[MosJan]

on the other hand >>> US threatens Azerbaijan with sanctions due to China
18 December 2015, 16:39 (GMT+04:00)

 

http://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/2471131.html

 

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:

Much has been said about the US-China confrontation. There is nothing new or surprising in the constant opaque games of the two powers.

On the one hand, by maintaining the apparent calm, on other hand, Washington and Beijing are fighting for influence in every strategically important region.

Unfortunately, at this time Baku was also indirectly affected in this confrontation. Baku has recently signed several important documents with China. Of course, they could not but cause the US zealous attention and its painful reaction.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid a historic visit to Beijing.

An important Memorandum of Understanding was also signed to jointly promote the creation of the Silk Road economic belt following President Aliyev’s meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Less than a week has passed since that historic visit but the US has already made an unprejudiced gesture towards Azerbaijan.

The US Helsinki Commission submitted an anti-Azerbaijani bill to the Congress. The bill envisages imposing the sanctions against Azerbaijani officials.

It is clear that such kind of draft law is a measure of warning, which is just a signal for Baku. However, given the fact that the United States never does anything without any reason, it becomes clear that Washington became “jealous” of Baku to Beijing and makes it clear that it perceives such a turn by Azerbaijan from West to East as a kind of threat to its influence in the region.

One can understand the US: the Silk Road Economic Belt project, which has the prospective to become the most important transit artery between Asia and Europe, one of the key places in which belongs to Azerbaijan, as well as other important projects, will undoubtedly strengthen China's influence in the region.

In particular, Azerbaijan is the initiator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction project, the country has built the largest port in the Caspian Sea, a shipyard, has purchased new vessels. In addition, the country hosts the headquarters of the TRACECA international transport corridor.

Today, China has three ways to the West: the first way is Russia from the northern borders of Azerbaijan up to the Arctic, the second way is Iran from the southern border of our country till the Persian Gulf.

It is obvious that the most politically beneficial route for China is Azerbaijan.

Given that Azerbaijan and China have recently signed 10 documents, including a declaration on friendship and intensifying the cooperation, as well as projects in the spheres of education, transport, energy, railway and so on, Washington has something to worry about.

China has already laid the foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation and for strengthening its economic and political positions in the region and the US has no choice but try to prevent its archenemy from entering the strategically important Caspian Sea region.

Unfortunately, for this purpose, the US has chosen such an undiplomatic way which will cool down the relations between Baku and Washington.

---

Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency's Russian News Service

[MosJan]

Dispatches: Finally Getting Tough on Azerbaijan

 

Some of Azerbaijan’s international partners are finally taking exceptional steps to signal their alarm over the government’s serious crackdown on human rights.

 

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland today announced an official inquiry into Azerbaijan’s implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Jagland noted rightly that this rare move was triggered by European Court of Human Rights findings on “an arbitrary application of the law in Azerbaijan, notably in order to silence critical voices and limit freedom of speech.” Jagland stated he is “particularly alarmed when individuals are deprived of their liberty due to an abuse of power by a country’s legal authorities.”

With so many leading human rights defenders and journalists behind bars on politically-motivated charges and dozens of NGOs and media outlets closed or severely curtailed, Jagland’s unambiguous message shows leadership, with no time left to lose on securing an end to the disastrous human rights situation in the country.

Also today, across the Atlantic, United States Representative Chris Smith (R, NJ) has introduced draft legislation entitled the “Azerbaijan Democracy Act,” calling on the US government to promote “a stable, democratic Azerbaijan,” and for the Azerbaijani government to free all “political prisoners.” The bill calls for, among other things, visa sanctions on (unnamed) senior Azerbaijani officials responsible for the crackdown.

These steps should send an unmistakable message to the Azerbaijani government that its crackdown, underway for nearly two years with the clear intention to decimate civil society, will come with a price. Azerbaijan’s other key partners, namely the European Union and its member states, should consider equally meaningful and concrete steps. Without such commitment to principles and human rights protection, there is little hope of reversing Azerbaijan’s devastating human right trajectory.

Region / Country

Europe/Central Asia Azerbaijan

 

[MosJan]

OPEC sees oil supply from non-group nations falling

 

The IEA said OPEC’s decision last week to impose no ceiling on its output appeared to signal a renewed determination to maximise low-priced OPEC supply and drive out high-cost non-OPEC production regardless of price.

Internationally traded Brent futures were at $40.35 a barrel, up 24 cents.

Wednesday was the fourth straight day of falling prices.

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. In its new report the Organization of Petroleum Exporter Countries (OPEC) confirmed its forecast for 2006 on the decline of oil production in Azerbaijan and deliveries of its oil to the world market.

US crude futures were at $37.43 per barrel at 0631 GMT, up 27 cents from their last settlement, but still not far off this week’s seven-year lows below $37 per barrel.

“This lack of congruence may add a level of confusion in the near term, adding a degree of uncertainty to what is really going on”, he said. “I think 2016 will be a year where we will have a lower price environment”, he told The Globe and Mail on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit.

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Utah lawmakers criticized for praise of Azerbaijan, where they took
paid trip in 2013

By Matthew Piper
Feb. 25, 2016


Two Utah state lawmakers who took a paid trip to Azerbaijan recently
praised the former Soviet republic's commitment to religious freedom,
echoing sentiments frequently heard in U.S. state legislatures and
disputed by a half-dozen prominent watchdog organizations.

Last week, Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, and Rep. Lynn Hemingway,
D-Millcreek, read the citation in the Senate and House, respectively,
before introducing Azerbaijan Consul General Nasimi Aghayev.

Azerbaijan's government, Davis told senators, "sees diversity as one
of the country's great strengths."

Aghayev followed by saying it was appropriate that the citation was
read in Utah, "one of the most tolerant and harmonious states."

His remarks met with applause.

But Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Christian
Concern, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Pew Research Center
and the U.S. State Department have all called into question the
policies of Azerbaijan's government, including those related to
religion.

Critics say the resource-rich nation, sandwiched between Russia and
Iran and bordered to the west by longtime adversary Armenia, is more
dictatorship than democracy, known for jailing activists and
journalists and restricting activities of religious minorities.

Davis said he couldn't pronounce Azerbaijan before his May 2013 visit
to Baku, the nation's capital, where he joined dozens of U.S.
lawmakers at a celebration of Azerbaijan's independence. The
Washington Post later reported that trips for members of Congress and
their staffs were funded with money funneled to U.S.-based nonprofits
by the nation's state oil company.

Davis was invited by the nonprofit Pacifica Institute, he said, and he
in turn invited Hemingway, a retired executive in the oil and gas
industry.

The Pacifica Institute did not respond to a request to clarify the
source of the trip's funding.

He and Hemingway said they came away impressed with apparent progress
in a region where progress is in short supply.

When Ilham Aliyev won re-election as president later in 2013, Davis
sent Aliyev a note that was published on Aliyev's website.

"Citizens of your country, realizing their right to vote, demonstrated
long-term commitment to democracy and expressed trust in your
leadership again," he wrote.

Critics liken Aliyev, who succeeded his father, Heydar, in 2003, to an
organized crime boss. The Post reported that a day before voting
started in the 2013 election, a mobile app inadvertently sent out
election "results."

Davis said he didn't follow the election; "all I did was congratulate
a winner." In February 2014, he authored a citation honoring
Aliyev--whom he says he has never met, but heard speak at the previous
year's junket--that was read in the Utah House and Senate and
presented to Azerbaijan's U.S. ambassador, Elin Suleymanov.

That March, an email was sent by the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA) urging Utah's legislators "not to associate the good
name and reputation of your state with a corrupt dictatorship like
Azerbaijan."

Davis said his intent last week was to encourage Azerbaijan's progress
in the specific realm of religious freedom. United Nations' Alliance
of Civilizations will host its annual global forum in Baku this April,
and last May, Azerbaijan's Los Angeles consulate says it held an event
at an area LDS stake center that drew more than 800 people.

"All I have done is encourage religious freedom in that country,"
Davis said. "Have I taken a stand on their past history? No."

Nonetheless, a pair of Utah residents with Armenian heritage expressed
strong opposition to his citation.

Former state Sen. Bill Barton, whose mother's family is Armenian, said
he thinks Hemingway and Davis, whom he considers a longtime friend,
were "wined and dined" into support. Barton said he wrote in an email
to several senators that "you didn't know what was behind this, or you
would not have done it."

Salt Lake City resident Miriam McFadden, who exchanged emails with
Davis about her concerns, told The Tribune she was "mortified."

Even if its scope was narrowed to religious freedoms, she said,
Azerbaijan is suspected to have razed thousands of medieval Armenian
Christian headstones at a cemetery in Julfa in 2005, later found
through satellite imagery to no longer exist after the nation's
government had blocked inspection of the site.

"For us in Utah, where we claim that individual rights are so
important ... to endorse a country so suppressive and corrupt, it just
appalled me," McFadden said.

Davis said he has not heard of the Julfa incident.

The ANCA formally rebuked the citation. The letter's author, Western
Region executive director Elen Asatryan, said by phone this week that
such legislation has become common even though "all it takes is really
to just Google 'Azerbaijan'" to see that the lawmakers have been
duped.

Asatryan said citations like Utah's are propaganda fodder for
Azerbaijan's highly controlled media--the Committee to Protect
Journalists most recently ranked Azerbaijan as the world's
fifth-most-censored press--to burnish Aliyev's image.

Since the start of February, the L.A. consulate has reported that
governors in Montana, Hawaii and Nebraska have condemned the 1992
Khojaly Massacre, in which Armenian troops killed a disputed number of
Azerbaijani citizens that the nation pegs at 613.

Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, who was introduced to Aghayev by Davis and
Hemingway last week, said Aghayev didn't mention Khojaly.

A 2015 report from the Arizona Capital Times found that 20 trips for
Arizona lawmakers were paid for by the Azerbaijani government, though
Davis said he's not aware of any Utah lawmakers who've visited besides
himself and Hemingway. The Capital Times found that lawmakers had
passed "often identical" resolutions in support of Azerbaijan in 33
states.

Journalists at The Capital Times and Honolulu Civil Beat learned of
trips through legislator disclosures, but Davis and Hemingway said
they did not report their trip because they don't believe it qualifies
as a contribution or a conflict of interest.

"There's no way I'm getting remunerated in any way by Azerbaijan," said Davis.

Days before Davis and Hemingway read their citation in Utah, ANCA said
Idaho Rep. Thomas Dayley withdrew a similarly worded resolution
because it mobilized 90 local activists to share concerns.

While it may be that Azerbaijan is making a concerted effort to gain
validation, Davis said, the ANCA is trying to shape the story, too.
When the Senate last year commemorated the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide, he said, "You don't think that was sent back to Armenia for
them to brag about?"

In an email to The Tribune, Aghayev shared a 2010 Post editorial
calling ANCA "a particularly noxious lobby" that undermines the
interests of Armenia.

Davis said he isn't taking sides. "If we never forgive the past, then
we continue to create disharmony throughout the world," he said.

The Pew Research Center reported last year that as of 2013, Azerbaijan
was one of 18 countries with "very high" government restrictions on
religion."

The State Department's 2014 report on religious freedoms in Azerbaijan
says several of its laws limit the free exercise of religion and that
it has detained religious activists and raided minority religious
groups. Muslim and Christian groups complained that the process to
import religious literature is onerous. State police were criticized
for not intervening when individuals forcibly shaved off the beards of
Salafi Muslims.

The State Department's report did allow that "[t]he government took
some steps to improve religious tolerance, including providing support
for activities by the Jewish community."

Aghayev wrote that "only religious sects, which advocate for hatred
and violence against others and preach radicalism and extremism, are
prohibited by relevant laws."

Hemingway admitted that it's "hard to tell" from a short trip, but
that he believes the nation is "on the right track."

Said Hemingway: "I understand what's going on in the Middle East, and
it's scary as all get-out, and I don't know that you'll find a true
democracy there. I think it's very difficult to do that. But they come
as close as I think you're going to find in that area."

Davis said Aghayev also met with representatives of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Rabbi Benny Zippel.


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sltrib.com_home_3576456-2D155_utah-2Dlawmakers-2Dcriticized-2Dfor-2Dpraise-2Dof&d=CwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=gSyoZphG-zJ2lbvlDSOkprPtcWSchXMuQhWORiu0Csg&s=9JbmLXpfgfrZrTZe3_l32_4ow9E9KtRFNnFsr3ZXK2s&e=

[Yervant1]

Talysh people are interested in seeing a regional map without
Azerbaijan Republic

12:45, 27 February, 2016

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Talysh people are interested in
seeing a regional map without the Azerbaijan Republic. Talysh
scientist, political scientist, public figure and a leader of Talysh
movement Fahraddin Aboszoda told about this during a roundtable
discussion entitled "Ethnic people of Azerbaijan Republic; reality and
prospects".

`The best option for the Talysh people will be gaining independence.
This is a simple and clear goal. Of course, there are many Talyshes
that do not embrace this goal, and I feel regret about it. The
majority of our intellectuals accept this idea. I ideas go in line
with the opinion of our Armenian friends. We are interested in seeing
a regional map without Azerbaijan Republic. I am convinced that this
will happen in the future', `Armenpress' reports Fahraddin Aboszoda
saying.

In his words, there are several indigenous peoples in Azerbaijan, but
not all of them are ready to struggle for their existence. Fahraddin
Aboszoda stated that the Talysh issue is discussed in different expert
circles.

The Institute of Native Peoples of Caucasus-Caspian Region and Modus
Vivendi center organized a roundtable discussion themed "Ethnic people
of Azerbaijan Republic; reality and prospects". Azerbaijani minority
representatives also attended the discussion.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__armenpress.am_eng_news_837568_talysh-2Dpeople-2Dare-2Dinterested-2Din-2Dseeing-2Da-2Dregional-2Dmap-2Dwithout-2Dazerbaijan-2Drepublic.html&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=DhOmlQ8VMiefqkcGw-W0UkQmapRSl6yyaXjN_LBotkw&s=HeX1MT41MvCXwc0FC_JbKD5o8cXNjcub9fxbho55nSU&e=

[Yervant1]

Azerbaijan faces unwelcome dilemma

12:06 - 27 / 02 / 2016


On February 19 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to
visit Azerbaijan in the framework of the 5th meeting of the
Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation.

The event was scheduled to be held in Ganja but the day before the
alleged meeting, Aliyev had left there himself to make sure that the
preparations are made properly and being disappointed, announced that
the meeting would be held in Baku.

The Turkish president canceled his official visit to the unknown term
in the result of blast in Ankara, which killed dozens of people and
which was qualified as terrorism by the Turkish authorities.

Erdogan-Aliyev meeting may have had a significant regional importance,
as in addition to formal issues on the agenda, it was expected to
define Azerbaijan's stance related to Russia-Turkey day by day growing
conflict.

After destroying the Russian plane, when the Russian-Turkish relations
first noticeably escalated, Aliyev announced he was willing to mediate
to defuse the current tension between Erdogan and Putin, but as we see
the Russian-Turkish relations are deteriorating day by day.

It is obvious that Baku will soon face a dilemma, from which it has
been avoiding for months, hoping that the official Ankara and Moscow
will restore good relation.

Erdogan expects a clear response from Aliyev, whether Azerbaijan is to
join Muslim countries' coalition, initiated by Saudi Arabia.

Joining the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the coordinated stance with
Turkey mean contradiction to Russian interests.

Joining the anti-Russian coalition creates internal threats to the country.

The radical currents of Islam are becoming widespread in Azerbaijan by
the sponsorship of Saudi Arabia, some of which are fighting in the
Islamic State terrorist organization.

The Islamic opposition in Azerbaijan, where the real opposition
members are imprisoned or expelled from the country has started to
become stronger.

The Russian side has announced several times on the level of the
Foreign Ministry's representatives that it is not going to do anything
harmful to Baku and called for Aliyev to be neutral about this matter.

A pre-cautionary cue can be regarded the discovery of selling
offensive arms to Armenia.
Azerbaijan is well-aware that the anti-Russian stance may have a
direct impact on the Karabakh conflict peace settlement process,
weakening the positions of Azerbaijan.

In addition to the military and political assistance to Armenia,
Russia may provoke internal dissentions in the Azeri regions near the
border.

Being on Saudi Arabia side means directly striking to Iran.

If Azerbaijan did not participate in the anti-Iranian initiatives by
Turkey and Saudi Arabia, this step can be regarded a sign of obvious
hostility by Iran.

Azerbaijan actually faces a grave dilemma. Giving preference to any of
the parties, large-scale losses are expected from the opposite poll.
Either hostility from the two bordering countries or a strike from the
ally countries.

By Anna Barseghyan
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__times.am_-3Fp-3D160189-26l-3Den&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=vkZVY51sKdA848gIM0v-WnVUtDbhIY4n3JUFfpFLbgY&s=mR3nV0aIDTsJBDO8lIPasUObTKbLsXLfIRJG3CrykIw&e=

[Yervant1]

Ex-U.S. Congressman Quits Azerbaijani Lobby Group, Citing Nonpayment

By By Carl Schreck
March 02, 2016


WASHINGTON -- A former U.S. congressman has resigned as chairman of a
central player in the multimillion-dollar Azerbaijani lobbying effort
to court American support for the ex-Soviet republic's authoritarian
government, saying he has not been paid for his services "in a year."

Former U.S. Representative Dan Burton (Republican-Indiana) this week
resigned from the Azerbaijan America Alliance, a group founded by
tycoon Anar Mammadov, son of the oil-rich Caucasus nation's transport
minister, that has paid U.S. lobbyists more than $12 million since
2011.

"As I have not heard from you or Anar, and have not been paid for a
year, please consider this e-mail as a letter of resignation as
Chairman of the Azerbaijan American Alliance," Burton wrote in a March
1 e-mail to James Fabiani, whose Washington-based firm lobbies for the
group in the United States. The e-mail was seen by RFE/RL.

Fabiani did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment or to a voicemail
left with his office, and no one answered the phone at the number
listed on the Azerbaijan America Alliance's website.

Mammadov, a recent business partner of U.S. Republican presidential
front-runner Donald Trump for the construction of a 33-floor,
sail-shaped luxury hotel in Baku, did not respond to a Facebook
message, and no one answered the phone at the number listed on his
website.

Burton's resignation follows months of speculation about the fate of
the Azerbaijan America Alliance, a prominent pillar of a broader
Azerbaijani lobbying campaign in the United States to portray
Azerbaijan as a stable energy and security partner for the West. The
lobby involves both private and state money.

Baku's detractors accuse President Ilham Aliyev's government and its
proxies of trying to paper over an abysmal human rights record with
"caviar diplomacy," using gifts, vacations, and other expensive
incentives to gain friends and curry favor with foreign officials.

Aliyev recently removed broad powers from the Transport Ministry,
overseen by Mammadov's father, suggesting the family's influence in
the government is waning.

Several reports in the Azerbaijani media since August have cited
unidentified sources as saying that Mammadov planned to shutter the
Azerbaijan America Alliance due to financial difficulties amid the
broader economic crisis Azerbaijan is grappling with due to plunging
energy prices.

Burton's predecessor as the group's chairman, Azerbaijani businessman
Khayal Sharifzadeh, denied those reports, saying the organization
"continues its activity as usual and even in a larger scale."

Wining And Dining

Over the past five years, the Azerbaijan America Alliance has poured a
total of $12.3 million into U.S. lobbying efforts, according to the
public-interest website Opensecrets.org, having wined and dined
Washington's elite and pushed Baku's interests in meetings with senior
members of Congress.

Fabiani & Company's work for the group has made the Top 10 list of
priciest U.S. lobbying contracts every year since the organization's
launch in 2011, according to rankings compiled by Opensecrets.org.

The organization, which is not formally affiliated with the
Azerbaijani state but has hewn closely to the Aliyev government's
line, has continued this spending, paying $1.46 million for U.S.
lobbying services in 2015, most of which went to Fabiani & Company,
according to public lobbying disclosures.

Precisely how that money is being spent remains unclear. The group's
public activities appear to have ground to a halt. It has not updated
its social media accounts or the news feed on its website since
November, and it did not stage its lavish annual gala dinner in 2015
as it had the previous three years.

The group spent $430,000 for its 2012 dinner, which was attended by
then-House of Representatives speaker John Boehner (pictured with
Mammadov at left) and 15 other members of Congress, including Burton,
according to a 2013 filing under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration
Act (FARA).

In 2013, the Azerbaijan America Alliance terminated its FARA
registration, which had required it to provide detailed accounts of
its expenditures and contacts with government officials, journalists,
and other individuals while lobbying.

Its spending is now reported under the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act,
which requires a far less detailed account of a lobbying activities
than FARA. Fabiani & Company's filings reporting its work for the
Azerbaijan America Alliance in each quarter of 2015 indicate only that
contacts were made with the U.S. State Department and both houses of
Congress.

'I Didn't Want To Be Involved Anymore'

Burton was named chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance in
February 2013, a month after he left office after a 30-year career in
Congress. He told RFE/RL this week that Fabiani introduced him to
Mammadov, chairman of Garant Holding, a conglomerate with interests
that include construction firms, hotels, and insurance companies.

Investigations by RFE/RL have previously revealed that Anar Mammadov's
business interests are tied to the ministry overseen by his father,
Ziya Mammadov.

Burton said that he did not engage in lobbying during his time with
the Azerbaijan America Alliance, but that he would occasionally invite
members of Congress to "social functions" staged by the group.

He also published opinion articles supporting the Azerbaijani
government. One such piece in The Washington Times was singled out by
Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple, who noted that it failed
to mention Burton's affiliation with the Azerbaijan America Alliance.

In his resignation e-mail, Burton said that while he believes "it is
very important that there be a strong business and government
relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan, I still must
resign" due to nonpayment.

He declined to say how much he was paid as the organization's chairman.

He told RFE/RL that he has not been paid for his services since February 2015.

"I hope they don't have my name still as chairman of the Azerbaijan
America Alliance. I told them that I didn't want to be involved
anymore," he said in a March 1 telephone interview.

As of March 2, Burton was still listed as chairman of the Azerbaijan
America Alliance on the organization's website.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service

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[Yervant1]

Congressman on Baku's groundless claims: Armenians did not even know
about `Azerbaijan Democracy Act' until after it was introduced


Politics 11:55 05/03/2016 Region


Leading U.S. Congressman Christopher Smith urged the OSCE leadership,
as well as the U.S. government, to raise the issues of political
prisoners and lack of media freedom in Azerbaijan during their
discussions with Azerbaijan president IlhamAliyev, TURANnews
agencyreports.

"I met with President Aliyev twice in Baku, and I'm hoping to meet him
here, in Washington," Smithtold TURAN's Washington correspondent
commenting on the visit of Azerbaijan's president to the U.S., to
Nuclear Security Summit, which will be held at the end of March.

When asked about the prospects for approving `2016 Azerbaijan
Democracy Act,' Christopher Smith, the head of Helsinki Commission and
sponsor of that document,said thatthe U.S. is very serious about that
bill. `We are trying to get President Aliyevto realize that he and his
government have chosen to repress individuals, journalists, opposition
folks, which does not end well,' the congressman informed.

According to him, the fact that human rights are violated in the
country, and the number of political prisoners continues to growshould
not be ignored. `Journalists sometimes write things that none of us
like. When you find out whether you have a systemic problem, if there
is corruption involved, you get rid of the corruption, not
journalists,' Smith added.

As for the fact that Baku considers the Act `pro-Armenian,'the
congressman emphasized that the main aim of the document is to promote
fundamental human rights in Azerbaijan, and the Armenians `didn't even
know about it until after it was introduced.'

TURANnotes thatCongressman Smith also made a specific appeal to
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's Chairman of the OSCE,on behalf of
Khadija Ismayilova and other prisoners during the Helsinki Commission
hearing in Washington on March 1. He urged the OSCE leadership to
advocate for Ismayilova and others prisoners' release.

As TURAN informs, in his response Steinmeier said he recently met with
President Aliyev during Munich Security Conference and announced his
upcoming visit to Azerbaijan. "We'll urge Azerbaijan to respect the
freedom of media and hopefully we'll find solutions on this issue one
way or another," he said.

Meanwhile, Caucasian Knot informs that during his visit to Azerbaijan
from February 29 to March 1,Pedro Agramunt, the president of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),said that it is
necessary to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human
Rights on the cases of condemned activists IlharMammadov and
TofigYagublu. However, these appeals were perceivedambiguously in
Azerbaijan.

`In this respect I was assured that the Azeri authorities would
co-operate with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in his
Article 52 report on effective implementation of the ECHR, and that
dates would be set to receive the SG's [secretary General] mandated
representatives,' Agramunt said.

According to ElshanHasanov, the head of the Monitoring Center for
Political Prisoners, Agramunt's statementreflected the general
position of the Council of Europe. `Previously Pedro Argamunt was the
co-reporter of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe on
Azerbaijan and had a more contemplative position on human rights
problems. This is the reason why many civil society activists did not
trust him. However, his recentstatement as the president of PACE has a
different tone, and makes public the existing problems, including the
political prisoners and pressure on NGO with a special accent on the
necessity of the implementation of ECHR decisions.The fact that he
highlights the necessity of receiving the delegation, which the
Secretary General of the Council of Europe will send, shows that
Agramunt expresses the general consolidated position of all the
structures of the organization,'Hasanov said adding that the official
Baku's opportunities to maneuver are narrowing and the undertaking of
measures on the release of political prisoners becomes inevitable.

However, Samir Kazimli, the Coordinator of the Alliance for the
Defense of Political Freedom, is skeptical about Agramunt's mission.
Kazimli said that he had met the Secretary General of the Council of
Europe with a group of activists on February 28. `Agramunt pretended
to be writing down our speeches, and at the same time, he did not make
any statement. When I asked why he had not carried out his mission
when he was assigned to make a report on Azerbaijan's political
prisonerson June 2014, he answered that he had been ill.
Thisisnotaseriousattitude,' Kazimlisaid.

According to him, Agramunt is famous for his conformist position and
his custom of smoothing problems in Azerbaijan. He reminded that in
January 2013 he was one of those who failed Christoph Strasser's
report on political prisoners. `Agramunt said that all the issues
could be solved by conducting a dialogue with Azerbaijan government.
Ironically, the next day, after the failure of Strasser's report,
IlgarMammadov was arrested, and a new wave of arrests of activists
started. That is why I asked Agramuntat least not to praise Azerbaijan
government if he could not help to release political
prisoners,'Kazimli said.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the international
Sport for Rights coalition expressed serious concern regarding the
on-going disciplinary case against YalchinImanov, a prominent human
rights lawyer in Azerbaijan. In his statement published on the
websiteof the International Federation on Human Rights (FIDH),the
Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committeenoted that
judicial harassment against Imanov and many other independent lawyers
in Azerbaijan contravenes obligations Azerbaijan has undertaken before
the international community.

Imanov represented the interests of many well-known political
prisoners, such as imprisoned journalist Khadija Ismayilova, political
opposition figures Mammad Ibrahim, FuadGahramanli, and Murad Adilov,
journalist NijatAliyev, and many other wrongfully arrested dissidents
and victims of human rights violations in Azerbaijan. It is emphasized
that disciplinary case against YalchinImanov is another politically
motivated case regarding lawyers, who protect dissidents.

Following years of systematic efforts by the Government of Azerbaijan
to eliminate the voices of independent journalists, opposition
politicians, and civil society groups, Helsinki Commission Chair Rep.
Chris Smith on 16 December 2015 introduced the Azerbaijan Democracy
Act of 2015, a landmark bill that will deny US visas to senior members
of the Azerbaijani government and impose financial sanctions, which
could be lifted when the Azerbaijani government shows substantial
progress toward releasing political prisoners, ending its harassment
of civil society, and holding free and fair elections.

On 23 December, a working group for compiling a comprehensive list of
political prisoners issued a consecutive list of the Azerbaijani
citizens regarded as political prisoners in the country. The list had
93 names, including well-known rights defenders, journalists,
bloggers, political activists, religious leaders and others.It was
reported that in December 28, 2015, Azerbaijan president IlhamAliyev
signed an order of pardon of 210 convicts, however, citizens
recognized as political prisoners by human rights activists were
absent from the list of pardoned.

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[Yervant1]

ARMENOPHOBIA EXPORT: AZERBAIJANI KICKBOXER OPENS CLUB IN LONDON WHERE "ENTRY OF ARMENIANS IS PROHIBITED"

Politics 12:51 05/03/2016 Region

Hafiz Bakhshaliyev, a former member of Azerbaijan national kickboxing
team, rented a place in the center of London in 2016and opened a
kickboxing and boxing sport club called Kavkaz, and now 10 people,
mainly from Azerbaijan, train there, Publika.az reports.

When asked about the name Kavkaz "and if Armenians come to train
there, will you accept them?" Hafiz Bakhshaliyevtold the website,
"The entry of Armenians is prohibited. We will not stand by the enemy."

Publika.az notes that Hafiz Bakhshaliyev, the former member of
Azerbaijan national kickboxing team, moved to take up a permanent
residence in in Cardiff, the UK, in 2009and worked in a club called
Eagles. He took part in a series of games there, becoming the UK
champion among the professionals, according to K-1.

Currently, he is engaged in activities not connected with sport.

According to Azerbaijani opposition newspaper Musavat, Armenophobia
became a nation-wide activity in Azerbaijan and has reached such an
extent that for a easy stay in this country one needs only to accuse
someone that he is either "Armenian" or has "pro-Armenian views. At
the same time, no one needs any proof, you just have to blame a person
to become the favorite of the power. "Cases of no-Armenophobia are
only a result of obligations towards the West. If a person will show
hatred towards Armenians, the West would not cooperate with him,"
the newspaper concludes.

According to the Azerbaijani reports, the materials and stories
of the local media have recently seen a rise of use of insults,
obscene language and unpleasant expressions when covering Armenia
and the Armenians. In 2014, the head of the Department of expertise,
programming and analytics of the National Television and Radio Council
of Azerbaijan, TavakkulDadashev, called on Azerbaijani media to go
on using insults in the articles covering Armenian topics as much
as possible.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.panorama.am_en_news_2016_03_05_Armenophobia-2Dexport-2DAzerbaijani-2Dkickboxer_1540008&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=pnjfXGF-kSzXr6X613bUh7neZRNaKn4Fos9r0rrDRT0&s=OBqEyGCbrU3WRCllgOR_XayXRxPKGNfdsQXHNdfEA7E&e=

[Yervant1]

AZERBAIJANI MP CALLS TO BRING TREASON CHARGES AGAINST HIS DESPERATE COMPATRIOTS WHO TRIED TO PASS OVER TO NKR

Law 17:42 07/03/2016 Region

The media reported about 25 residents from Azerbaijan's Gabala
district wishing to cross the border and surrender to the Armenians
but nothing was taken up against them, MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev said,
according to Modern.az.

He said those people attempted to cross to the Armenian side as a
protest against the unfair court rulings handed down to them. "The
son of the man who attempted to transfer his wife and children to the
enemy's side was sentenced to one year in prison. Instead of appealing
the decision in higher courts and raising the issue, he passes over
to the enemy's side. This should be addressed with legal procedures.

Otherwise, everyone facing legal injustice will start putting the legal
procedures aside and passing over to the Armenian side," the MP said.

Therefore, according to Hasanguliyev, the runaways should be punished
on charges of high treason under a due article of the Criminal Code of
Azerbaijan. "The traitors should receive a condign punishment. Some
concessions can be applied for women and children but the organisers
of the case cannot be easily let go. Those people should face criminal
liability," he pointed out.

Ogtay Asadov, the speaker of Azerbaijan's parliament, backed the MP's
idea that the law enforcement agencies of the country should give a
legal assessment of those peoples' actions.

On 27 February, about 25 residents of the village Ketuklu of Gabala
district inhabited mainly with Lezgians tried to pass to the territory
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the direction of Aghdam with
white flags in their hands. However, the police soon encircled and
detained the runaways. One of the members of the group reportedly
said the cause of the villagers' protest was the unfair behaviour of
the Nabiyev family, who hold key posts in the region.

Earlier, there were numerous reports about Azerbaijani civilians
passing or attempting to pass the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and
surrender themselves to Armenia or to the NKR.

On 23 January 2014, dozens of residents of Beylagan region,
Azerbaijan, in protest against the demolition of their houses by
the chief executive body tried to pass to the territory of Nagorno
Karabakh Republic. On 29 January 2014, an Azerbaijani citizen Javid
Orujov, resident of Baku born in 1976, appealed to the Armenian border
guards on the Armenian-Georgian border, asking for a political asylum
for him, his wife and their three young children. On 12 April 2014,
Nazim Mammadov, a resident of Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, was
detained by the Azerbaijani military while attempting to cross the
border with Armenia with a white flag in his hands. Earlier, in 2010,
Nariman Agayev, from Goychay district, threatened to seek for asylum
in Armenia because the investigator handed his daughter's corpse to
him only after getting a bribe of 1000 USD.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.panorama.am_en_news_2016_03_07_Azerbaijani-2DMP_1540727&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=cXB0w60SVTf3z8Ushl7ptaxxkMzwOMBb41r0Tze0nEk&s=cU9w7MSoKyjsqJAHgmRSK0y7Fpn8q0x-EgU5oP2ZNjQ&e=

[Yervant1]

How to Get Rich While in Congress
And Even After Retirement!
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Two weeks ago, I reported that former Cong. Dan Burton had resigned as
Chairman of the Washington-based Azerbaijan America Alliance because he had
not been paid for a year!
It is hard to feel sorry for a man who had eagerly gone to bed with the
dictatorial regime of Ilham Aliyev until the money stopped!
For years, many members of Congress have supported all sorts of shady
causes and foreign and domestic interest groups to not only reap financial
benefits during their tenure in Congress, but more importantly, land a
lucrative lobbying job after their retirement from `public service'!
Last week, a reader sent me an old article that had exposed Cong. Dan
Burton's questionable practices during his first 18 years in Congress, not
including the last 12 years before his retirement! Titled `The Hypocrisy of
Dan Burton,' the article was written by American Prospect Online reporter
Lindsay Sobel in December 2001.
Ironically, while Burton was Chairing the House Government Reform
Committee, he was doing `plenty of favors for contributors, according to an
exhaustive investigation by The Hill and other publications in 1997 and
1998,' Sobel wrote. Burton had done `favors for reputed terrorists, human
rights violators, and a despot.' As an example, Sobel cites Burton's
request to `the State Department to give former Zairian dictator Mobutu
Sese Seko a visa to visit the United States after receiving thousands of
dollars in campaign contributions and honoraria from Mobutu's Washington
lobbyist.... Around the time of the contributions, Burton also made
statements on the floor of the House of Representatives praising Mobutu.'
Burton `also took thousands of dollars in legal contributions from
people
with business interests in Turkey,' Sobel reported. `Afterwards, he made a
statement on the floor of the House of Representatives he had cribbed from
a Turkish government official. The statement defended Turkey against
well-documented charges that its government committed serious human rights
violations against the Kurds. In 1996, Burton made another floor statement
that almost exactly echoed materials that Turkey's lobbying firm gave to
members of Congress, according to The Los Angeles Times. Burton calls
himself a defender of international human rights. Nevertheless, after
receiving contributions from Turkey's allies, he defended the country's
government on numerous occasions -- despite the fact that the United
Nations, State Department and numerous human rights groups have made
serious allegations against Turkey's government.'
Sobel also reported Burton's involvement `in programs put on by the
conservative International Freedom Foundation. Later investigations
revealed that South Africa's apartheid government funded the Foundation in
order to increase support for apartheid overseas, and discredit Nelson
Mandela's African National Congress. At least two Burton contributors
worked in the Foundation's Washington office, according to The Los Angeles
Times. Consistent with his work with the Foundation, Burton opposed
sanctions against South Africa's apartheid government and openly criticized
the African National Congress.'
`In another case, Burton intervened with the Department of Education for a
campaign contributor who owns a medical school in the Caribbean, according
to Roll Call. Soon after doing the favor, Burton asked his contributor
whether his daughter could apply to an affiliated veterinary program.'
Sobel's research on Burton indicated that he had `run into
other kinds of
trouble as well. For example, the FBI investigated charges that Burton
demanded that a lobbyist for Pakistan raise $5,000 for his campaign or be
barred from Burton's office. (Burton admitted meeting with the lobbyist,
but denied shaking him down.) In addition, The Hill reports that Burton
paid his criminal defense lawyer $25,000 out of his campaign -- rather than
personal -- funds. Also, according to The Hill, Burton took an allegedly
illegal contribution from a group founded by five organizations that the
State Department identified as Sikh terrorist groups. Burton advocated the
group's cause -- an autonomous Sikh homeland in India.'
Regrettably, Burton is not an exception in Washington. There are many
others in and out of Congress who are just like him. Therefore, it is
imperative to establish an Armenian-American watchdog group that
investigates the financial records of all elected officials who
consistently vote against Armenian issues and support Azerbaijan and
Turkey. These two countries have such odious human rights records that the
only reason politicians would support them is to enrich themselves either
during their service in Congress or after retiring, and often both!

[Yervant1]

This is long but worth reading!

 

Foreign Policy: How I accidentally became a lobbyist for Azerbaijan

http://panorama.am/news_images/519/1555852_3/fp.thumb.jpg

Politics 11:03 02/04/2016

A Republican representative from Nebraska Jeff Fortenberry shares his experience in Azerbaijan in a lengthy story published in the Foreign Policy Journal. The author writes: “A couple of weeks ago, a friend invited me to an event called Azerbaijan Appreciation Day. The email invitation stated that “Muslim and Jewish leaders” would gather for lunch at the Azerbaijani embassy in Washington to “express appreciation to Azerbaijan for its pioneering work in Muslim-Jewish relations,” writes Foreign Policy Journal.

Sure, I thought. I support interfaith harmony. What’s not to like? I hadn’t heard that Azerbaijan was such a shining beacon of Muslim-Jewish relations, but I didn’t know all that much about the small nation of 9.4 million just north of Iran.

The day before the event, which was to be held on March 16, the venue was changed from the Azerbaijani embassy to the Embassy Row Hotel near Dupont Circle. When the day arrived, I made the short walk from my office, looking forward to meeting like-minded fans of interfaith events and to learning about Azerbaijan’s exciting religious initiatives.

The luncheon featured several speakers from the U.S. Jewish and Muslim communities. One speaker, Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), one of the event partners, declared Azerbaijan a “paradigm for religious tolerance among Muslim countries in the Middle East,” and that Azerbaijan “has become a great, great inspiration for many in the United States.” Sayyid Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), remarked that among Muslim majority countries, Azerbaijan was the “best example” of “respect for diversity built up over centuries.” Marshall Breger, a law professor who once served in the George H.W. Bush administration, noted that Azerbaijan demonstrated that a Muslim majority country “can support its Palestinian brothers and also recognize the state of Israel.” Azerbaijani Ambassador Elin Suleymanov mentioned that his nation was the first Muslim country to become a republic, which it formed in 1918 (only to fall to the Soviets two years later).

But something didn’t feel right. The invitation had indicated that after the luncheon, the group would pay a visit to a few members of Congress to tell them about how

Azerbaijan is “promoting and strengthening Muslim-Jewish relations both at home and around the world.”Azerbaijan is “promoting and strengthening Muslim-Jewish relations both at home and around the world.” But except for the mention of Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel, I had yet to hear anything specific about the country’s religious policies. There had only been vaguely repetitive platitudes.

The weirdness continued. Many participants I spoke to had traveled from New York that morning to attend, but few seemed to know exactly why they were there or what we were supposed to be doing. With some noted exceptions, there also seemed to be little actual interest in interfaith initiatives among participants. One young woman I met was one of those who had been brought in from New York for the day’s activities. She gave me one-word answers when I asked her why she was there. Was she a member of one of the organizing groups? “No,” she said. Did she regularly participate in interfaith activities? “No,” she replied, sounding bored. How did she hear about the event? “Lonny,” she said.

That was a common answer participants gave when I asked why they had come. I later learned that this was Lonny Paris, who works with New York-based veteran campaign consultant Hank Sheinkopf and who was helping FFEU coordinate the afternoon. I’ve attended many interfaith events, but never one that was organized with the help of a consulting firm. Paris told me in a phone interview that he had enjoyed working with people who shared an understanding of how important it is to “showcase Azerbaijan to the world as a majority Muslim country that has a longstanding Jewish community and is a trading partner with Israel.” Paris continued, “It’s tremendous that they see also the importance in telling this story of Jewish and Muslim cooperation.”

After lunch, Paris divided the participants into smaller groups and directed us to a bus to shuttle us to the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, which houses the offices of Congressional representatives. I ended up in a group composed primarily of Israelis, along with two young African-Americans who, after telling me that they were from New York, were silent for the remainder of the afternoon. Two members of our group were young tourists from Israel who had been sightseeing on the West Coast for a few weeks. They didn’t seem interested in talking about politics. In between visits to Congressional offices, they kept trying to take selfies. One of them asked me if we would be meeting Barack Obama.

Another member of the group worked as a producer for Fox News. He told me how surprised he had been, when he started working at Fox, to discover that the broadcast network actually was fair and balanced, just like it claimed to be.

While we wandered Cannon’s halls, he explained patiently that Obama really is a Muslim. “A non-practicing Muslim,” he said, “but still a Muslim.”While we wandered Cannon’s halls, he explained patiently that Obama really is a Muslim. “A non-practicing Muslim,” he said, “but still a Muslim.” It was a statement that I have never before heard at an event claiming to be a celebration of interfaith relations.
Our group was slated to visit three House representatives that afternoon, all Republican: Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a member of the Tea Party-leaning Liberty Caucus; Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska; and Mo Brooks of Alabama, who has claimed that a “large segment of the Muslim population” is supportive of terrorism. According to FFEU executive director Chris Sacarabany, no visits were paid to Keith Ellison or Andre Carson, the only two Muslims in Congress.

That was when I finally realized that Azerbaijan Appreciation Day was not really about Muslim-Jewish relations in Azerbaijan. It was about Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel and U.S. Jewish organizations. In the lead-up to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Washington this week, it seems Azerbaijan was trying to win over members of Congress concerned about the country’s dismal human rights record by touting its strong relationship with Israel.

That’s because as a country with endemic corruption, elections marred by restrictions and allegations of fraud, and a poor human rights record, Azerbaijan has to be creative if it wants to stay on the United States’ good side. In the past several years, the government has jailed dozens of journalists, human rights activists, and lawyers in a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Aliyev’s title is president, but he succeeded his strongman father, Heydar Aliyev, in 2003 and has held office ever since. Freedom House categorizes the country as “not free,” with a media environment that is “not free” and Internet that is only “partly free.” In 2015, Transparency International ranked the country a lowly 119 out of 168 in its Corruption Perceptions Index. While Azerbaijan released dozens of political prisoners shortly before Aliyev’s visit to Washington, dozens more remain in prison, including journalist Khadija Ismayilova and opposition leader Ilgar Mammadov.

“Azerbaijan has few strengths to play to in the U.S.,” former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich wrote in an email. “A decade ago, Azerbaijan tried to use its Turkish connection via the Turkish [Caucus] in the Congress to generate support. That worked up to the point when Turkish-Israeli relations went south — and therefore support for Turkey in the Congress softened.”

Kauzlarich explained further,

“Unable to lobby successfully on its own, Azerbaijan has used its Israeli connections to develop with the American Jewish community.”“Unable to lobby successfully on its own, Azerbaijan has used its Israeli connections to develop with the American Jewish community.” One use for this connection, Kauzlarich wrote, is “to buffer against criticism of Azerbaijan’s appalling human rights record.”
To be sure, the largely Shiite Muslim country does offer a level of religious tolerance uncommon in the region. Its constitution grants equality to Christians, Muslims, and Jews, though according to a 2011 U.S. State Department report, “other laws and policies restricted religious freedom in practice.” The nation’s Sunni and Shiite sects largely get along — though a growing number have left Azerbaijan to join ISIS as foreign fighters. About 20,000 Jews live in Azerbaijan, where they were shielded from the anti-Semitism of the Soviet era and surrounding Middle Eastern countries, and where they can attend synagogue and practice freely.

The small Muslim-majority country is one among a number of relatively obscure nations with corruption and human rights problems who spend small fortunes on lobbying in the U.S. capitol. Azerbaijan keeps lobbying firm Podesta Group on monthly retainer, and

in 2014, the country and those acting on its behalfspent$4 million on efforts to win influence among think tanks and lawmakers.in 2014, the country and those acting on its behalf spent $4 million on efforts to win influence among think tanks and lawmakers. In 2015, an ethics investigation revealed that 10 members of Congress and 32 of their staff members had taken a trip to Baku, Azerbaijan in 2013, secretly funded in its entirety by the Azerbaijani government. They had also received carpets and other gifts worth thousands of dollars.
One possible direction of these efforts is to prevent sanctions from being placed on key individuals complicit in Azerbaijan’s human rights violations. In December, Republican Congressman Chris Smith introduced a bill that would deny U.S. visas to certain Azerbaijani officials. How ties to U.S. religious groups might benefit the Azerbaijani government cause became clear on March 30, when Rabbi Yonah Bookstein and several other religious and community leaders wrote a letter addressed to House Speaker Paul Ryan, published in the Jewish Journal.

“I am deeply concerned about upcoming legislation that would harm our friend and ally Azerbaijan,” wrote Bookstein, who had visited Azerbaijan in May 2015 for a conference on tolerance and diversity in the capital Baku, as had FFEU’s Schneier. “We all hope that as Azerbaijan grows, prospers and develops, they will enjoy the same kind of Democracy that we have in America — but that isn’t going to happen in a few short years. It would also be completely hypocritical and harmful to America, Israel and the Jewish community, if we were to implement sanctions against our allies in Azerbaijan.”

The Azerbaijani embassy had also hosted the “appreciation” luncheon I attended on March 16, though not the trip to Capitol Hill that followed. Mammad Talibov, political and legal affairs counselor at the Azerbaijani embassy, told me in an email that “it is important that our American friends, including members of Congress, know about the strategic importance of Azerbaijan and the strong partnership our nation enjoyed with the United States in many areas of cooperation.” It was “equally important,” Talibov continued, “that they see the significance of Azerbaijan’s example of promoting tolerance and diversity.”

That explained the weird vortex of obfuscation and platitudes that had plagued Azerbaijan Appreciation Day.That explained the weird vortex of obfuscation and platitudes that had plagued Azerbaijan Appreciation Day.
I didn’t understand why the FFEU — an organization I respect, and that has worked since its founding in 1989 to strengthen ties among the Jewish, black, and Muslim communities in the United States — would involve themselves in an event like this.

“You have to see things in context,” FFEU president Schneier told me in a phone interview when I asked him about Azerbaijan’s human rights record. “I know there have been some major improvements here. Azerbaijan is now taking in Syrian refugees. Everything in life is a process.”

He added, “We were very careful to stay away from any lobbying,” describing the event as “our opportunity to say thank you.” In a follow-up email with Paris, I asked him about Azerbaijan’s human rights record. His emailed response, exactly ten words enclosed in quotes, was, “Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel and the United States is invaluable.”

I didn’t hear much about those ties or the country’s specific policies on Azerbaijan Appreciation Day. Rather, in an event I had thought would promote and celebrate reproducible religious initiatives, participants were fed glowing rhetoric and then packed off into buses to regurgitate what they’d just heard to representatives on Capitol Hill, to the benefit of an authoritarian regime.

Not everyone stuck around. Among those I interviewed, ISNA’s Syeed was the most forthcoming about Azerbaijan. He said he hoped to convey to Ambassador Suleymanov his desire for the country to be on a path to a “truly democratic society.” Syeed told me he had attended the luncheon but not the afternoon on Capitol Hill. “I need more orientation. I need to visit before I can advocate for Azerbaijan,” he said. “I haven’t been there in 40 years.”

Schneier told me that the afternoon’s meeting with Congressional representatives had been a success. “Sometimes 99 percent of life is just showing up,” he said. “Some members of Congress expressed to me that they just did not realize how many American Jews feel, how many American Muslims feel.”

“To think that a little tiny country like Azerbaijan is bringing Muslims and Jews together,” said Schneier. “Wow.”

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/01/how-i-accidentally-became-a-lobbyist-for-azerbaijan-human-rights-religion-israel/

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/04/02/Foreign-Policy/1555852

 

[Yervant1]

OCCRP: Exposed one more corruption network connected Azerbaijani president’s clan

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Politics 17:53 18/04/2016 Region

The Bribe Factory journalists have found that energy service company Unaoil, which has contacts with Azerbaijani authorities, also used offshore services provider Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore companies, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

It is noted that one of the biggest “donors” to the United Kingdom’s ruling Tory party, property magnate Javad Marandi, was also a Mossack Fonseca client. According to the report, he was allegedly involved in Unaoil's dealings in Azerbaijan through his friend Mohammad Reza Raein, who acted as Unaoil's Azerbaijani middleman. Raein “was extremely close to Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family,” according to a 1999 Kellogg Brown & Root file.

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament Valeh Aleskerov, who is also the head of the foreign investments’ department of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), was one of Raein’s confidential sources, reported Fairfax Media. In 2005 and 2006, Raein asked the Ahsanis – Unaoil founders – to pay tens of thousands of dollars into the bank accounts of a man named "Javad." They identified the man as Javad Marandi after an email showed “Javad’s wife’s uncle Ilyas” as a senior executive of Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company, SOCAR.

According to the report, between 1996 and 2005, Raien was paid at least US$ 4.5 million for his work in Azerbaijan.

Fairfax Media found that Unaoil's offshore companies had channelled corrupt payments to politicians, officials and oil industry executives in several countries for many years.

Meanwhile, according to Azerbaijani news agency Trend, British Petroleum (BP) Regional President on Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, Gordon Birrell, stated that BP, together with its partners on processing Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli and Shah Deniz natural gas fields, has invested over $58 billion in Azerbaijan during its more than 20-year history in that country.

Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s clan is also mentioned in the documents of the Panama company Mossack Fonseca, which deals with offshore companies’ registration. It was reported that according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), using a network of secretive companies in offshore tax havens, Aliyev's clan, advisers and allies set about acquiring expensive overseas homes and positions in the country’s valuable industries and natural resources, including the family’s majority control of a major gold mine that has been unknown until now.

It was reported that in the middle of 2003, a few months before the October presidential elections, Azerbaijan’s Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov started to create Ata Holding - one of today’s biggest conglomerates in the country. Mammadov invited president Aliyev’s family to join him and create a potentially powerful and profitable business-political partnership.
According to ICIJ reports, Ata Holding is a corporation with an impressive share in Azerbaijan’s banking, telecommunication, construction, mining, and oil sectors. As of 2014, its action assets exceeded $490 million.

The leaked documents show that two years later, in 2005, president Aliyev's wife, MP Mehriban Aliyeva, was named one of two managers of the UF Universe Foundation, along with Fazil Mammadov. In attachments to a “High Importance” email sent to Mossack Fonseca in February 2005 by a lawyer representing the Aliyevs' clan, documents proposed that then six-year-old Heydar Aliyev, the president’s son who is known in the files as “A1,” be made the beneficiary of 20 percent of the foundation’s proceeds. The plan also proposed that the president’s two daughters, Leyla, then 19, and Arzu, then 17, would hold 15 percent each. Mammadov’s son held 30 percent while Ashraf Kamilov, a former tax ministry official, and other former tax officials held smaller stakes. So, too, did Ata Holding’s chairman, Ahmet Erentok.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/04/18/OCCRP/1564562

[Yervant1]

Expert: When pressed on its human rights record, Azerbaijani government claims global Armenian conspiracy

Law 11:23 30/04/2016 Region

Arzu Geybullayeva was a correspondent for Agos, an Armenian bilingual weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, in 2014 when she faced an ugly campaign from the Azerbaijani government to hurt her credibility with the Azerbaijani people. Authorities called her a traitor because the government was not happy with her critical reporting, Voice of America writes.

“I was doing a lot of work with Armenians at the time. I was co-directing a small not-for-profit organization that did dialogue programs between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But the funny thing is, when I was called a traitor and they made an enemy of the state out of me, they never mentioned anything about my critical reporting. They always mentioned my Armenian link and how I was writing for an Armenian paper in Istanbul,” she said.
According to Geybullayeva, she was even accused of “selling government secrets.” She noted that it is a very common method to discredit journalists in Azerbaijan. “It's the easiest way to get public support, because we are in a war with Armenia and there are a lot of people who are fed propaganda,” she added.

Voice of America reports that Geybullayeva’s story is included in a new book released by the Committee to Protect Journalists. It brings together essays from female journalists who shared stories about the threats and online abuse they faced while reporting.

Meanwhile, human rights organization Amnesty International writes that famous journalist and researcher Khadija Ismayilova was locked up by the Azerbaijani authorities for exposing high-level corruption. According to the organization, Ismayilova is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately.

Khadija Ismayilova is an award-winning Azerbaijani investigative journalist and an outspoken government critic. She has published numerous articles exposing human rights violations and corruption at the highest levels in the country. The authorities punished her first by running a prolonged and retaliatory smear campaign in the state-controlled media and later by bringing trumped-up criminal charges against her.

“The Azeri authorities are very sensitive to public criticism of their human rights record. Generating media attention is an important way to bring pressure on the regime to release political prisoners,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

It is highlighted that on June 19th, Baku will be hosting the European Grand Prix, and this will be a great opportunity to generate media attention in that area.

In his turn, journalist Giorgi Lomsadze writes for Eurasianet.org that human rights lawyer Amal Clooney’s April 26 remarks to the BBC "have hit a raw nerve in Azerbaijan," where her client, investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, “is kept prisoner.”

The author writes that after Clooney described the political reasons for Ismayilova’s arrest, the Azerbaijani government apparently did what it always does when pressed on its human rights record -- claimed a global Armenian conspiracy.

“No matter if Clooney’s case at the European Court for Human Rights involves an Azerbaijani journalist’s struggle against the Azerbaijan state. Azerbaijan’s state propaganda will find an ‘Armenian connection’ even if there is none,” Lomsadze writes.

The author reminds that when Clooney said she was taking up Ismayilova’s case, Azerbaijani media claimed that the British lawyer was of Armenian descent. Clooney is, in fact, of Lebanese extraction.

It is highlighted that Azerbaijan’s pro-government media seemed particularly incensed with Clooney’s recent attempt to rally support for Ismayilova’s case in Washington. Clooney told the BBC that she believes international pressure can help free the innocently imprisoned journalist.

In addition, the author writes that an article was published in the Azerbaijani pro-government News.az website that the Armenians paid Clooney to go to Washington and set the White House and Capitol Hill against Azerbaijan. “How far Azerbaijan’s pro-government hacks will go with this theme of an international Armenian conspiracy remains to be seen,” Eurasianet emphasizes.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/04/30/Expert/1571391

[Yervant1]

Աղուանական Կը Ներկայացուի

http://www.ragmamoul.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/3.jpg

Ազրպէյճանի Մէջ Հայկական Եկեղեցին Իբրեւ Աղուանական Կը Ներկայացուի

Posted By: adminPosted date: May 04, 2016in: Այլեւայլ ԼուրերNo Comments

Ազրպէյճանի Շեքի (Նուխի) քաղաքէն դէպի հիւսիս Քիշ գիւղին մէջ գտնուող 4-րդ դարու հայկական եկեղեցին, այդտեղ այցելող զբօսաշրջիկներուն կը ներկայացուի իբրեւ աղուանական: Քիշ անունը յառաջացած է ազրպէյճաներէն «քեշիշ»` տէրտէր բառէն:

Ոչ մեծ չափի մատուռ յիշեցնող եկեղեցին, որոշ տուեալներով կը համարուի 1-4-րդ դարերու: Ան տարածաշրջանի ամենահին եկեղեցին կը սեպուի: Եկեղեցին չէ աւերուած միայն այն պատճառով, որ այդ գիւղին մէջ կը բնակին անցեալ դարասկիզբին հայկական ջարդերու ժամանակ հաւատափոխ եղած հայերու յետնորդներ:

Մինչ խորհրդայնացումը Քիշ գիւղին մէջ բնակած են միայն հայեր: Նուխիի մէջ այսօր եւս դեռ կանգուն են հայկական երեք եկեղեցիներ, որոնցմէ մէկը կը գտնուի հայկական գերեզմանոցին մէջ: Սակայն այսօրուայ հայատեաց Ազրպէյճանի մէջ, բոլոր հայկական եկեղեցիներուն նման այդ եկեղեցին եւս արտասահմանցիներուն կը ներկայացուի իբրեւ աղուանական:

Հետաքրքրական է, որ գիւղին ներկայ բնակիչները, որոնց մէջ քիչ չեն հաւատափոխ հայերու սերունդները, կ՛այցելեն եկեղեցին, կը պահպանեն զայն իբրեւ Աստուծոյ տուն: Այս մէկը կը փաստէ, որ անոնք կ՛այցելեն եկեղեցի իբրեւ սուրբ վայր եւ երկիւղածութեամբ` իրենց միտքին մէջ պահած բարի ցանկութիւն մը` հաւատալով, որ անիկա անպայման պիտի կատարուի:

Եկեղեցին վերանորոգուած է Նորվեկիոյ նիւթական օգնութեամբ: Ցաւօք վերանորոգման ժամանակ ազրպէյճանցիները տաշած եւ վերացուցած են եկեղեցւոյ գմբէթին շուրջը դուրս ցցուած քարերով հայերէն գրութիւնը: Անիկա ներկայիս կը ծառայէ իբրեւ թանգարան:

[Yervant1]

Media reports: While Azerbaijan’s first lady is UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, her husband Ilham Aliyev jails independent journalists

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POLITICS 11:31 06/05/2016 REGION

Emin Milli, managing director of OCCRP partner Meydan TV, finds it ironic that Azerbaijan’s First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador as Khadija Ismayilova receives the UNESCO award for revealing extensive corruption connected to the Aliyev family, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

It is noted that Milli recently learned that 15 Meydan TV journalists are under criminal investigation.“People are afraid to do very basic journalistic activity because journalism is a crime in Azerbaijan. We are having two different Azerbaijanis in UNESCO today. How is it possible not to use this moment to address this issue directly with Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva and the president of Azerbaijan?” he emphasized.

Milli also added that Mehriban Aliyeva cannot be the goodwill ambassador of UNESCO while her husband keeps independent journalists getting the UNESCO prize in jail.

Meanwhile, Meydan TV published blogger Orkhan Elgiz’s report on its website. The blogger also reminds that Azerbaijani president’s wife – the director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azerbaijani MP Mehriban Aliyeva-- is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Elgiz stresses that investigative journalist and “prisoner of conscience” Khadija Ismayilova, who worked for the Azerbaijani service of the RFE/RL,was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on May 3. It is reminded that Ismayilova was awarded for investigating the large-scale corruption president Aliyev’s daughters were involved in. He highlights that the journalist is jailed for exposing the corruption linked to the presidential family and not for “those far-fetched and unproved forged accusations the court was guided by.”

“MP MehribanAliyeva, who is known for her charitable activities, has never asked in the parliament why Khadija Ismayilova was jailed for 7.5 years. International media writes about it, and it is impossible that the Azerbaijani first lady does not know about it. And this is not even a matter of charity but elementary justice. Apparently, justice and charity exist only for those loyal to the hereditary presidents' family and its favorites in Azerbaijan; however, UNESCO does not care about it so much,”Elgiz writes noting that Ismayilova is not the only journalist jailed in the country for her professional activities.

Summing up, the author wonders, “Who does UNESCO support? Those who expand the press freedom investigating the authorities’ corruption affairs, like Khadija, or those authority officials who jail the journalists in order to shut their mouths, like Mehriban Aliyeva?”

MeydanTV reports that during the UNESCO prize awards, the mother of the jailed Khadija Ismayilova, who was awardedfor her contribution to press freedom, read a letter written by the imprisoned journalist.

Ismayilova reminds in her letter that Guillermo Cano was a journalist killed in front of his paper's office.In all of his work, he was not afraid of voicing problems, he refused to compromise and sought justice. The journalist also writes in her letter that the same happened with the independent journalist Elmar Huseynov in Azerbaijan.

“I believe his work and his sacrifice must be honored here tonight.Elmar was the editor of an independent human rights magazine called The Monitor, which was unique in its simple journalistic mission to tell the truth about domestic developments in Azerbaijan.Elmar was gunned down in front of his apartment on March 2, 2005. His wife and child were home when the shots were fired.There has been no investigation into his murder, no prosecution, no assignment of blame,” Ismayilova writes emphasizing that Elmar Huseynov's murder was one of the countless crimes against journalists that have met with impunity in Azerbaijan.

The journalist reminds that she speaks from her prison cell, and her crime was exposing corruption linked to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and members of his family. “I remain alive to fight for justice, unlike my colleague and dear friend Elmar,” Ismayilova adds.

“Humanity suffers when journalists are silenced.This is why some people believe that the killing of journalists constitutes a crime against humanity. As you gather here tonight, I ask you not to laud my work or my courage, but to dedicate yourself to the work each one of you can do on behalf of press freedom and justice.You now have a relationship to Guillermo Cano, to Elmar Huseynov, and to me. We are all degraded and dehumanized by attacks on our fundamental rights, by contempt for justice, by disdain for fairness and denial of the truth. We, globally, brought together tonight to honor press freedom, must pledge to fight for it,” the jailed journalist highlights.

In its turn, the Caucasian Knot informs that Ali Karimli, an Azerbaijani opposition politician and head of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, commenting Ismayilova’s letter, wrote on his Facebook that being a hostage of the Azerbaijani regime, she unpleasantly surprised the authorities. “She brought out a criminal case – Elmar Huseynov’s murder –to international level… She told the whole world that Elmar Huseyov had been killed for his publications. I am sure that Khadija is the winner in the fight ‘regime vs Khadija Ismayilova’,”Karimli stated.

Meanwhile, Margaret Huang, interim executive director of Amnesty International USA, writes for the Huffington Post that the US president Barack Obama vowed that as long as he hold the office, his administration would“continue to fight for the release of American journalists.” In this regard, the author highlights that many journalists in countries that the United States considers allies face persecution and oppressions. It is also reminded that the Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was jailed for exposing the corruption the Aliyev family was linked to, as reported above.

According to the Caucasian Knot, supporting the international organization Sports for Human Rights, famous international non-governmental organizations called to release the journalists and bloggers imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Their call was timed to World Press Freedom Day celebrated on May 3.

According to the information, the organizations called on the international community to increase attention on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan on the eve of the Formula One Grands Prix, which will be held in Baku on June 17-19.

“The Azerbaijani independent media celebrate the World Press Freedom Day under pressure they have not ever faced before,” the statement signed by 18 organizations reads.

The authors of the statement condemn “the Azerbaijani authorities’ relentless crackdown on the independent media and other critical voices.”They call on the authorities to implement immediate and concrete steps to improve freedom of _expression_ in the country, starting with the unconditional release of UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize winner Khadija Ismayilova and Azerbaijan’s other jailed journalists, bloggers, and other political prisoners.

It is highlighted that despite the recent release of 16 political prisoners, dozens remain jailed for political reasons. Among them are journalists Nijat Aliyev, Araz Guliyev, Seymur Hezi; bloggers Abdul Abilov, Faraj Karimov, Rashad Ramazanov, and Ilkin Rustemzade; and others “targeted in connection with exercising their right to freedom of _expression_, such as opposition Republican Alternative (REAL) movement leader Ilgar Mammadov.”

It is noted in the statement that the authorities’ pressure on journalist Khadija Ismayilova has been “particularly relentless.”She has been extensively targeted for exposing high-level corruption, topics recently brought into the spotlight again by the Panama Papers leaks.

It is also noted in the statement that the Azerbaijani authorities continue the practice of politically motivated arrests. Criminal cases against writer Akram Aylisli and Meydan TV staff are particularly mentioned.

“A diverse and pluralistic media is a hallmark of a democratic and progressive state. The renewed crackdown on Meydan TV, alongside repression of other critical media outlets, demonstrates the Azerbaijani government’s unwillingness to tolerate any criticism and a total failure to commit to systemic and genuine reforms that would enable freedom of _expression_ for all,” Thomas Hughes, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, said.

It is also noted that other independent media and NGOs working to promote free _expression_ have been targeted in recent years, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Baku bureau and the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety.

“The state completely dominates the broadcast media, and one of the few remaining critical newspapers, Azadliq, has been forced to suspend publication of its print edition and teeters on the brink of closure. Violent attacks against journalists – including murders – are committed with impunity, resulting in a climate of fear for the independent media,” the statement reads.

It is emphasized in the statement signed by 19 organizations that the Azerbaijani authorities should take the responsibility and follow the undertaken international obligations in human rights.

The website reports that the head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Center,Elshan Hasanov, also shares his foreign colleagues’ concerns. “Even after the release of 20 journalists and activists, currently there are over 100 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.The international community should not weaken its attention to this problem until the last political prisoner is released,”Hasanov said.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/05/06/Media-reports/1573960

[Yervant1]

Aliyev and Erdogan in list of enemy-leaders of media

16:43, 6 May, 2016

YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. “Reporters without borders” international
organization started an ironic campaign entitled “Great year for
censorship” where the names of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey
Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are written in the list of
leaders of 12 countries who “Celebrate their victory over media”.

As “Armenpress” reports citing organization’s official website,
“Reporters without borders” states that in Azerbaijan 7 journalists
are in jail, and there are no independent TV channels in that country.
A number of independent journalists are in exile, attacks are carried
out against the remaining journalists in the country. Moreover, not
only journalists, but their family members as well are being exposed.

The organization says more than thousand cases are underway in Turkey
for “insulting the President”: more than 100 journalists are in
prison, and police campaigns are being held in publication editorials.
In addition, journalists are dismissed for “Twitter”, and some of the
foreign journalists are banned to enter the country.

The organization has started a similar ironic campaign against other
high-ranking officials of different states.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__armenpress.am_eng_news_846443_aliyev-2Dand-2Derdogan-2Din-2Dlist-2Dof-2Denemy-2Dleaders-2Dof-2Dmedia.html&d=DQIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=jFxe9-22L-N0ezMGqbUQdivd_6KxF-SJdY9sNtwDuQY&s=sq8ZOv4j7UcjRyZp9S1e6t-vuuY8BCpsxlLcR2aK3E4&e=

[Yervant1]

 

Heydar Aliyev’s statue in Baku desecrated

16:49, 10 May 2016

Siranush Ghazanchyan

http://www.armradio.am/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Aliyev-statue-620x300.jpg

Late in the evening of May 9th, the day before the birth of former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, graffiti found its way onto a statue dedicated to the same man, in a park in Baku, Meydan TV reports.

The inscription read: “Happy Slave Day!”

The unknown author took the Azerbaijani phrase, “Gül bayramınız mübarək!”, changed the first two letters of the first word and thereby completely changed the meaning of the phrase from, “Happy Flower Day!” to “Happy Slave Day!”

Flower Day is celebrated every year in Baku and other large regional Azerbaijani cities on the 10th of May to coincide with the birthday of the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.

Every year in preparation for the holiday, the government spends tens of millions of dollars on flowers from Holland, Italy, France, Turkey, China and other countries. This has elicited criticism and contempt from civil society.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2016/05/10/heydar-aliyevs-statue-in-baku-desecrated/

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Azerbaijani financial system on the edge of collapse – local media

19:00 - 26/May/2016

Azerbaijani haqqin.az published a material entitled The West tries to
save Azerbaijani financial system. “The World Bank published material
which testifies the catastrophic situation of the Azerbaijani banking
system,” the web site writes. According to the WB, only 36.4% of the
Azerbaijani adult population have banking account. With this index
Azerbaijan is the last among 15 post-soviet countries.

The majority of banks are getting closed because of going bankrupt.

The experts invited by Azerbaijani president stated that the US dollar
is very much rated there while the local currency is on the edge of
collapse. They offered implementation of urgent reforms for saving the
financial system of the country.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__nyut.am_-3Fp-3D117896-26l-3Den&d=DQIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=zvcbHwIdHx85lHHzdJ9cF_S0M0wwCXGxd9P5fe6NmKY&s=qvKvFCM92KplD4CBYXDHe4lor96laoe-pcS8Lxz52Rk&e=

[Yervant1]

Azerbaijan imprisoned me. Pharrell Williams and others should stop
helping my jailers – Khadija Ismayilova

11:02 • 18.06.16

Re-published from the Washington Post

This weekend, the Formula 1 European Grand Prix will run through the
beautiful streets of Old Baku, in the heart of the Azerbaijani
capital. The thought of a collision during the race fills me with
dread.

The likes of Pharrell Williams, Chris Brown and Enrique Iglesias were
slated to entertain race fans, helping to promote the ruling Aliyev
family’s projection of my country as a happy, normal nation.

But Azerbaijan is a country that runs on corruption. Officials can be
bought and sold, blind eyes can be turned and crimes can be overlooked
if the price is right. The only thing you can’t buy is freedom of
speech.

In September 2015, I was sentenced to 7½ years’ imprisonment on
various charges, including embezzlement and tax evasion (I had already
spent just under nine months in “pretrial detention”). The charges
were false but acutely ironic: The real reason I was in jail was that,
as a journalist, I had investigated these same crimes by the Aliyev
family.

In jail, I met a woman who had, for years, smuggled heroin between
Iran and Azerbaijan. She ended up doing this because her husband had
been ill and the hospitals had demanded bribes to treat him —
“Breaking Bad,” Caucasus-style. She had been caught several times but
managed to avoid prison until now. As we talked, I asked whether she
ever felt like protesting against prison conditions or the corruption
that led her to smuggle drugs. She said she had not. She was afraid.
But she was brave enough to smuggle heroin? “When you deal drugs,” she
said, “you can usually bribe someone and be freed. But if you protest,
no bribe will get you out.”

She was right. Money can buy criminals freedom or fewer years in
prison. Political prisoners are not able to make these deals.

But certain offers are made.

My currency in prison could have been my silence. Basic rights would
be granted to me in return for my promise to stop writing. I didn’t
agree and continued writing even from prison. Publication of my
articles resulted in searches, interrogation and even more
restrictions on my communications. Before and after every meeting with
my lawyers and family, I was strip-searched. Every single note and
piece of paper from these meetings was scrutinized, despite legal
guarantees of confidentiality.

When I was asked whether I would agree to have my family members or
lawyers write an appeal to the president asking for my release, I said
no. It would be, to put it in Solzhenitsyn’s terms, “participation in
the lie.” I didn’t want to be part of the repression machine.

My release, which finally occurred in May, was the result of an
international, public campaign, carried out by various organizations.
But I was just one of dozens of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
Many others still remain. Among them is Seymur Hezi, a journalist for
the Azadliq newspaper and presenter of “Azerbaijan Hour,” a satellite
TV show. He was framed for “hooliganism.” Opposition leader Ilgar
Mammadov has been jailed since 2013. Blogger Ilkin Rustemzade is in
jail because of protests he organized in 2013.

What these cases all have in common is that the authorities are
terrified of things they cannot control.

They are desperate to put forward the image of Azerbaijan as a
liberal, pluralistic country. With the same irony that led to me being
charged with embezzlement, they try to bolster their liberal
credentials by locking up those who question them.

Meanwhile, they spend money the country doesn’t have (falling oil
prices have dramatically affected incomes) on international sporting
mega-events with which they aim to dazzle the world.

I wonder whether Pharrell Williams and the other entertainers in Baku
this weekend for the Grand Prix will pause to ask ordinary
Azerbaijanis whether they are happy, or whether they want to see such
prestige events in a country that has failed to establish a basic
medical insurance system for its citizens.

Or maybe they don’t ask, because they know most Azerbaijanis are not
used to expressing their opinions, for fear that no money would buy
them freedom if they did. Maybe those whose freedom is at risk cannot
question this regime, but Iglesias, Brown and Williams can — if only
so they don’t have to participate in the lie.

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[MosJan]

[MosJan]