The European Stability Initiative, on May 24, published an extremely curious document called “Cavalry diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe”. This report looks truly sensational – even against the background of an unprecedented flurry of critical publications and assessments in the world press and by various organizations in connection with the Eurovision in Baku.
English newspaper Financial Times a few days ago expressed surprise by the fact that Azerbaijan continues to be a member of the council of Europe. The ESI report gives an exhaustive answer about the reasons for this, and it is by no means unfounded and not abstract, like many other European organizations, but quite specific: with facts, persons and circumstances, clearly and unequivocally calling things by their proper names.
This is evidenced at the beginning of the report, which contains photographs of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, related to monitoring in Azerbaijan in different years, dividing them into two groups: “defenders” and “critics”. The authors follow the 12-year membership of Azerbaijan in the Council of Europe in the context of elections, showing how the process of “muzzling” the European deputies went, and giving shocking details of how the corruption blossomed with the admission of Azerbaijan to the CoE and what were the concrete results of widespread practice of bribery Members of the Assembly.
The ESI report deserves to be fully published. However, certain pieces from the document, which we give in our own translation, are able to give an idea of how deeply the efforts of the Azerbaijani leaders penetrated the structures of the Council of Europe with primitive bribery, leading to shameful and absolutely vicious results for Europe.
Many deputies in PACE after the first “Hello” ask: “WHERE IS CAVIAR?” The distribution of gifts is a part of the traditional Azerbaijani culture, but often they have to be paid for then at a high price. The book on the customs and culture of Azerbaijan says that generosity towards guests and friends implies a return, and it is this logic that underlies the policy that Azerbaijani officials in private conversations call “caviar diplomacy.”
It began in 2001, after Azerbaijan’s admission to the Council of Europe, and gained a special scope with the coming to power of Ilham Aliyev. After the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was put into operation in 2005, when state officials began to “swim” in oil revenues, “caviar diplomacy” became dominant, write the authors of the report.
Evidence from two Azerbaijani sources in Strasbourg is provided as evidence. “One kilogram of caviar costs 1300-1400 Euros. Each of our friends in PACE receives each session, four times a year, at least 0.4-0.6 kg. The key friends of Azerbaijan in PACE are 10-12 people, there are several more in the secretariat, “they say. For some of these “friends”, caviar is only the beginning, as during visits to Baku they receive a large number of other gifts. “Many deputies are regularly invited to Azerbaijan and are paid generously. Usually for a year people are invited 30-40, some of them not once. They are called at conferences, events, sometimes for summer vacations. This is a real holiday with a lot of expensive gifts. Mostly they give expensive silk carpets, gold and silver items, drinks, caviar and money. The usual gift in Baku is 2 kg of caviar” confess sources.
According to the authors themselves, the report describes how the authoritarian regime of Baku managed to circumvent the fulfillment of its obligations to the Council of Europe, shut the mouths of critics and turn international monitoring of elections into a political show.”This is a story about how was neutralized” (It is interesting that the word neutere in English has one more meaning – to castrate. -M.G.) one of the oldest human rights organizations in Europe” the authors of the ESI state. And they add that the result of all this was the tragedy of Azerbaijani citizens, in particular, those activists who were imprisoned and became political prisoners. At the same time, it was a tragedy for Europe, the values of which were trampled down, because PACE deputies, who enjoy the fruits of “caviar diplomacy”, sit in the national parliaments of European countries. Finally, this is a real tragedy for the Council of Europe, on which they were established, in order to justify its existence”.
Further authors of the report are stopping for the “worst” PACE elections for all the history of PACE, held in Azerbaijan in 2010, calling them “stolen”, they quote the table of unfulfilled obligations to the Council of Europe. And most importantly, they follow in detail the real struggle of the “critics” and “defenders” of the Baku regime, including the names of Mevlut Cavusoglu and the English deputy with the scandalous reputation of Mike Hancock.
In the next issue of the GA, we will continue to talk about this report of the European Stability Initiative, and in general about the obvious and profound degradation that the Council of Europe is experiencing. And we will cite as evidence not only the notorious “caviar diplomacy” with which Azerbaijan literally corrupts Europe, trampling its fundamental values, but also recent facts related to the assessment of elections in Armenia by members of the observation mission of this structure.
Marina GRIGORYAN,
“The Voice of Armenia”