Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the CE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) informed Tert.am of the report Caviar Diplomacy – How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe by the European Stability Initiative (ESI).
The report contains the names and photos of the PACE members bribed by Azerbaijan and lobbying for its interests.
“The report indicates that the persons in question got about 0.6kg of caviar each, in addition to the money they may have got from Azerbaijan’s authorities. Twenty MPs are named, including Mike Hancock, who is known for his anti-Armenian positions,” Zohrabyan said.
Specifically, with respect to the manifestation of this “caviar policy,” its financial aspects and scale, the ESI, referring to its source in Strasbourg, writes: “One kilogram of caviar is worth between 1,300 and 1,400 euro. Each of our friends in PACE receives at every session, four times a year, at least 0.4 to 0.6 kg. Our key friends in PACE, who get this, are around 10 to 12 people. There are another 3 to 4 people in the secretariat.”
The source also notes that for some of these “friends” the caviar is just the beginning.
“Caviar, at least, is given at every session. But during visits to Baku many other things are given as well. Many deputies are regularly invited to Azerbaijan and generously paid. In a normal year, at least 30 to 40 would be invited, some of them repeatedly. People are invited to conferences, events, sometimes for summer vacations. These are real vacations and there are many expensive gifts. Gifts are mostly expensive silk carpets, gold and silver items, drinks, caviar and money. In Baku, a common gift is 2 kg of caviar.”
On behalf of the Armenian delegation, Mrs Zohrabyan stressed that not only the Armenian delegation, but also European organizations are concerned over the fact that international institutions are turning into ones with high corruption risks.
Strasbourg-based sources report that the Azeri delegation spares no efforts to prevent the report from being discussed by any political group.