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AZERBAIJANI LOBBYISTS TARGET EU OPINION
BY ANDREW RETTMAN
EU Observer
May 24 2012
BRUSSELS - Azerbaijan beats up journalists, jails political opponents
and bulldozes people's homes to build shopping malls - according to
the latest resolution by the European Parliament.
It is run "in a manner similar to the feudalism found in Europe during
the Middle Ages ... with general agreement among leading families to
divide the spoils" - according to a leaked US embassy cable from 2010.
It is being "consistently persecute[d]" by NGOs Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch in the run-up to Eurovision 2012 this weekend
- according to Ali Hasanov, the head of the Azerbaijan presidential
administration socio-political department.
Hasanov's public statement earlier this week is a sign of Azerbaijan's
sensitivity about its international reputation.
With President Ilham Aliyev's wife personally organising the Eurovision
event and with his daughter recently launching a glossy magazine to
promote Baku, the sensitivity goes right to the top.
It has hired four lobby firms in the US: Bob Lawrence & Associates,
Jefferson Waterman International, Fabiani and Company and Patton Boggs.
In the EU, the pro-Azerbaijani foundation, The European Azerbaijan
Society (Teas), has offices in Berlin, Brussels, London and Paris.
Until Wednesday (23 May), when the International Olympic Committee
said No, Burson-Marsteller in Brussels touted Azerbaijan as a good
place for the 2020 games because of its "Olympic values of respect,
excellence and fair play."
Boutique PR firm Glocal Communications organises seminars with MEPs
about Azerbaijan's "geostrategic" importance.
Another pro-Azerbaijani foundation in the EU capital, the Office of
Communication of Azerbaijan (Ocaz) is a mystery: it does not answer
emails and the phone number on its website connects to the Cypriot
EU mission, which is fed up with saying it is not Ocaz.
Meanwhile, in Strasbourg - the seat of the human rights watchdog,
the Council of Europe and the EU parliament's second home - Azerbaijan
flies council-attached MPs to Baku and gives them expensive presents.
A report out on Thursday by the Berlin-based NGO, the European
Stability Initiative, cites an Azerbaijani official as saying Council
of Europe MPs who go on the trips get "silk carpets, gold and silver
items, drinks, caviar and money. In Baku, a common gift is 2kg of
caviar [worth ~@2,500]."
Zooming in on Brussels, Teas says it is an independent NGO paid for
by ordinary folk in the Azerbaijani diaspora, even though its founder
and head, Tale Heydarov, is the millionaire son of President Alyiev's
minister for emergency situations, Kemaleddin Heydarov.
Its line on human rights questions is the same as that of the
Azerbaijani EU embassy: that it is a "young" country where democracy
is "a work in progress," that it is the victim of Armenian propaganda
due to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and that if you visit Baku
you would be amazed at how "modern" it is.
Teas spokesman Leon Cooke, who used to work for Burson-Marsteller,
told EUobserver: "I feel passionately about Azerbaijan. If you were
to see it, you would find it a wonderful place."
He confirmed that Heydarov's foundation took an interest in two recent
EU parliament resolutions - on an EU-Armenia treaty and on Azerbaijan
human rights - and that it sometimes invites MEPs to Baku. But he
denied organising any trips in relation to the dossiers.
Whether or not lobbying played a part, the resolutions went through
in unusual circumstances.
Back in April, Lithuanian centre-right MEP, Vytautas Landsbergis,
shortly after returning from Baku, tabled an amendment saying the
EU-Armenia treaty should be linked to "the withdrawal of Armenian
forces from the all [sic] occupied territories of Azerbaijan
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh."
It was rejected after the chairman of the foreign affairs committee,
German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, complained that it is
"irresponsible" to interfere in the conflict.
Landsbergis told this website his visit to Baku "did not play a part"
in his initiative. But he declined to say who paid for his trip.
On Tuesday, the centre-right EPP group tabled a resolution condemning
human rights problems in Azerbaijan, while adding sugary language on
"the positive development of the established political dialogue with
the opposition" and Baku's "efforts to strengthen democracy and rule
of law."
The EPP's internal negotiator on the text, Romanian deputy Monica
Macovei, told EUobserver it was pushed through by someone "higher
than me in the group" and that she is "not happy" about it.
The group in a surprise move late on Wednesday binned its text in
favour of a tougher resolution by the Liberals, Greens and Socialists.
From: A. Papazian
BY ANDREW RETTMAN
EU Observer
May 24 2012
BRUSSELS - Azerbaijan beats up journalists, jails political opponents
and bulldozes people's homes to build shopping malls - according to
the latest resolution by the European Parliament.
It is run "in a manner similar to the feudalism found in Europe during
the Middle Ages ... with general agreement among leading families to
divide the spoils" - according to a leaked US embassy cable from 2010.
It is being "consistently persecute[d]" by NGOs Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch in the run-up to Eurovision 2012 this weekend
- according to Ali Hasanov, the head of the Azerbaijan presidential
administration socio-political department.
Hasanov's public statement earlier this week is a sign of Azerbaijan's
sensitivity about its international reputation.
With President Ilham Aliyev's wife personally organising the Eurovision
event and with his daughter recently launching a glossy magazine to
promote Baku, the sensitivity goes right to the top.
It has hired four lobby firms in the US: Bob Lawrence & Associates,
Jefferson Waterman International, Fabiani and Company and Patton Boggs.
In the EU, the pro-Azerbaijani foundation, The European Azerbaijan
Society (Teas), has offices in Berlin, Brussels, London and Paris.
Until Wednesday (23 May), when the International Olympic Committee
said No, Burson-Marsteller in Brussels touted Azerbaijan as a good
place for the 2020 games because of its "Olympic values of respect,
excellence and fair play."
Boutique PR firm Glocal Communications organises seminars with MEPs
about Azerbaijan's "geostrategic" importance.
Another pro-Azerbaijani foundation in the EU capital, the Office of
Communication of Azerbaijan (Ocaz) is a mystery: it does not answer
emails and the phone number on its website connects to the Cypriot
EU mission, which is fed up with saying it is not Ocaz.
Meanwhile, in Strasbourg - the seat of the human rights watchdog,
the Council of Europe and the EU parliament's second home - Azerbaijan
flies council-attached MPs to Baku and gives them expensive presents.
A report out on Thursday by the Berlin-based NGO, the European
Stability Initiative, cites an Azerbaijani official as saying Council
of Europe MPs who go on the trips get "silk carpets, gold and silver
items, drinks, caviar and money. In Baku, a common gift is 2kg of
caviar [worth ~@2,500]."
Zooming in on Brussels, Teas says it is an independent NGO paid for
by ordinary folk in the Azerbaijani diaspora, even though its founder
and head, Tale Heydarov, is the millionaire son of President Alyiev's
minister for emergency situations, Kemaleddin Heydarov.
Its line on human rights questions is the same as that of the
Azerbaijani EU embassy: that it is a "young" country where democracy
is "a work in progress," that it is the victim of Armenian propaganda
due to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and that if you visit Baku
you would be amazed at how "modern" it is.
Teas spokesman Leon Cooke, who used to work for Burson-Marsteller,
told EUobserver: "I feel passionately about Azerbaijan. If you were
to see it, you would find it a wonderful place."
He confirmed that Heydarov's foundation took an interest in two recent
EU parliament resolutions - on an EU-Armenia treaty and on Azerbaijan
human rights - and that it sometimes invites MEPs to Baku. But he
denied organising any trips in relation to the dossiers.
Whether or not lobbying played a part, the resolutions went through
in unusual circumstances.
Back in April, Lithuanian centre-right MEP, Vytautas Landsbergis,
shortly after returning from Baku, tabled an amendment saying the
EU-Armenia treaty should be linked to "the withdrawal of Armenian
forces from the all [sic] occupied territories of Azerbaijan
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh."
It was rejected after the chairman of the foreign affairs committee,
German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, complained that it is
"irresponsible" to interfere in the conflict.
Landsbergis told this website his visit to Baku "did not play a part"
in his initiative. But he declined to say who paid for his trip.
On Tuesday, the centre-right EPP group tabled a resolution condemning
human rights problems in Azerbaijan, while adding sugary language on
"the positive development of the established political dialogue with
the opposition" and Baku's "efforts to strengthen democracy and rule
of law."
The EPP's internal negotiator on the text, Romanian deputy Monica
Macovei, told EUobserver it was pushed through by someone "higher
than me in the group" and that she is "not happy" about it.
The group in a surprise move late on Wednesday binned its text in
favour of a tougher resolution by the Liberals, Greens and Socialists.
From: A. Papazian