Member of the US House of Representatives from 2013
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US senator: Visiting Azerbaijan for money by former US officials is a shame for US diplomacy
Azerbaijan is making active efforts to ensure that high-ranking US officials, politicians and lawmakers visit the country, despite the fact that the White House and Congress many years ago banned high-ranking officials from making visits financed by external forces, the Azerbaijani news agency Turan writes.
The article notes that recent events in Baku, with the participation of former advisors to Barack Obama and high-ranking members of the Congress, organized by the Azerbaijani government, underscore fears that such trips can be used to appease them.
So, at the Azerbaijani-American forum in Baku on May 29, which was financed by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, along with dozens of other participants, including former Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz, former Republican senator Richard Lugar, three former advisers to President Obama: David Plaff, Jim Messina, and Robert Gibbs. This happened a few days before the ruling party of Azerbaijan formally nominated its leader Ilham Aliyev as a presidential candidate for a third term.
“If you want to know how much high-ranking officials are willing to sell their values – it’s usually several tens of thousands of dollars … It’s so much for the Azerbaijani people that the cost of hosting such well-known former government officials in order to listen to their speeches at a conference in Baku. First-class flights are also paid, “said the US Senate veteran on condition of anonymity in an interview with the Washington-based correspondent Turan.
The material says that the senator, who rejected the offer to participate in the Azerbaijan-American Forum, stressed as a reason for the refusal the poor state of human rights and authoritarian government in Azerbaijan: “There are many other ways to make money without direct involvement in lobbying dictators … high-ranking politicians attended the event in Baku, and all of them were generously compensated for their time and flights. This is a shame for our diplomacy and should not be repeated in the future. “
In a conversation with the “Turan” correspondent, several members of the Congress who participated in the Baku forum did not deny that their trip was free, but some of them insisted that the sponsors of their trip “have no connections with the government of Azerbaijan.”
However, as noted in the material, the website “LegiStorm”, which contains the data of the Congress, proves that the trip of at least four members of the Congress, such as Danny Davis, Jim Bridenstine, Ruben Hinojosa, Gurney Cuellar, and several of their assistants was paid for by the Azerbaijani lobbying group “Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians” based in Houston and “Turkish American Federation of Midwest”, which is known as a subsidiary of the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce.
In a recent interview with Turan, Michael Rubin, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, who was also among the moderators of the forum in Baku, said that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan was the real sponsor of the event, while several Azerbaijani and American companies made.
Representatives of both organizations – both the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce and the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians – refused to speak with the Washington correspondent Turan about their relations with the government of Azerbaijan and about participation in the Baku forum. However, Azerbaijani media reported that the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce is funded by the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, and that both groups are connected with the famous Turkish billionaire Fetullah Gülen.
Concerning to this the correspondent of Turan asked the visiting scholar of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Foundation, Bayram Balci, who has been studying the topic of “Gulenists” since the 1990s, regarding the possible connection between the Azerbaijani government and the Turkish billionaire leader of the Nursist sect .
“This cooperation is quite a classic case and usual for the position of the Azerbaijani government and the strategy of the F. Gulen movement,” Balci said, noting that by organizing tours of American officials to Azerbaijan, as well as to Turkey, associations supported by Gülen pursue the goal “to develop Cooperation with both countries in business, education and even lobbying”.
Balci also noted that from the position of the Gülenists they have a double interest in such cooperation: on the one hand they strengthen the “brotherhood of Azerbaijan and Turkey”, and on the other they strengthen their interests in business and education in Azerbaijan. In his opinion, the Azerbaijani government is trying to use Turkish lobby groups, in particular Gulen, but others to strengthen ties between the US and Azerbaijan.
“But the question is, is it really that the well-paid participation of current and former members of the American political elite in such conferences serves a real improvement in relations between the US and Azerbaijan, – the material says and emphasizes that the event in Baku took place several weeks after the Azerbaijani authorities accused the local branch of the National Institute of Democracy (NDI) of illegal financial operations, while many in Azerbaijan believe that the real problem was real Criticism of the Azerbaijani government by the organization.
So, in his post in the social network Twitter about the Baku conference, the famous American senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, noted that even Radio Liberty / Free Europe is banned in Baku.
Source: panorama.am
The Hill: American congressmen return expensive gifts received from the authorities of Azerbaijan
After the control report of the US Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), American congressmen returned jade earrings, tea sets, silk scarves, carpets and other gifts received during their visit to Azerbaijan, secretly financed by the government. In the report of the Office, this visit is characterized as “wrong”. This is stated in the material published on the site of the publication “The Hill”.
The list of returned gifts, which the staff of the publication requested from the US General Services Administration (US GSA), gives a more detailed idea of the trip of US lawmakers to the conference in Baku in 2013. According to OCE, 9 current US congressmen and 32 legislative employees who attended the conference received gifts worth thousands of dollars. Some of the lawmakers also went to Turkey after the conference and received additional gifts already there.
According to the report, submitted on May 8, 2015, non-profit organizations based in Texas reported false information about the financing of the trip, but it was revealed that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) sent 750.000 dollars through non-profit organizations, in order to hide the real source of funding for the visit of US lawmakers.
As noted in the material, Congressmen Yvette Clarke, Jim Bridenstine, Michel Lujan Grisham and Ruben Hinojosa returned gifts in October 2015.
Under the accepted rules of ethics, when congressmen accept a gift, they must either pay the appropriate “market value” of the gift or return it to the physical or legal person from whom they received it. Legislators may also transfer gifts to the Secretary of the House of Commons, who will then transfer them to the General Services Office for disposal or sale.
Ethical rules for members of Congress say that, in some cases, they can accept gifts worth less than $ 50. Gifts from foreign countries and international organizations are acceptable if they are valued at less than $ 350.
The article also notes that the groom of Congressman Lujan Grisham accompanied her during her trips to Azerbaijan and Turkey. During the investigation Grisham informed OCE that many of the gifts she had received, she kept in her office. Earrings, tea set and a large carpet the congressman left in her home in Washington, some of the gifts were kept in her home in New Mexico.
The material says that congressmen Ted Poe Leonard Lance and Sheila Jackson Lee also went to Baku, but they refused to talk to OCE during the investigation and it is not known which gifts they received.
Recall that in May 2015, the American newspaper The Washington Post published an article in which it was noted that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) secretly paid all the expenses of the American delegation participating in the conference “Azerbaijan-US: Look into the Future” in May 2013. The delegation also included three former assistants to US President Barack Obama who took part in the conference as speakers.
As the newspaper writes, US lawmakers and their employees received hundreds of thousands of dollars for travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani carpets for $ 2500-10,000. As tourist accounts show, the cost of air tickets for legislators and their spouses cost the SOCAR $ 112,899.
Source: aysor.am