{"id":2247,"date":"2016-11-21T14:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2016-11-29T15:13:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T15:13:57","slug":"caviar-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2247","title":{"rendered":"Caviar democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italian TV channel on Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201cCaviar diplomacy\u201d: president Aliyev gets rich on account of state funds<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paolo Mondani \u2013 journalist of the Italian TV channel Rai 3 \u2013 prepared a TV program dedicated to Azerbaijan\u2019s so-called \u201cCaviar diplomacy\u201d<\/a> [link by CB ed.]<\/p>\n

(panorama.am, 23\/11\/2016) The journalist met Armenian MP Samvel Farmanyan. In the interview, the MP notes that when he started his activity in the Council of Europe, he realized that he had to face lobbyists working for Azerbaijan. Among them, Farmanyan names Italian politician Luca Volont\u00e8 \u2013 former head of the European People’s Party faction in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and Pedro Agramunt \u2013 the current chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who defended Azerbaijan\u2019s interests in exchange for money.<\/p>\n

German deputy of the council of Europe, Christoph Str\u00e4sser, notes that oil-rich Azerbaijan generally spends its finances on corrupt projects. The country buys influence with the help of money. And the 2 million spent on the lobbyists is a good investment.<\/p>\n

However, it should be noted that those investments do not enthuse the country\u2019s population. On September 17 of the current year, the opposition discontent with the president Ilham Aliyev\u2019s government held meetings. The protesters had posters with the photos of political prisoners. It was stated during the meeting that the government should use the country\u2019s resources in the population\u2019s favor instead of investing in foreign countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aliyevs have been ruling the country for already 23 years. At first, former president Heydar Aliyev falsified the voting results during elections, then the power was handed to his son Ilham Aliyev in 2003,\u201d Ali Kerimli \u2013 leader of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party \u2013 said. According to him, Aliyev has power over the parliament and judicial system of the country. All the other banks, holdings, and large corporations of the country are in the president\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

The TV program also draws the viewer\u2019s attention to the fact that the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev\u2019s name appeared in the documents of Panama’s Mossack Fonseca, one of the biggest offshore service providers. Reportedly, in April 2016, Aliyev and his family members\u2019 names were on the front pages of Panama papers.<\/p>\n

Names of the president\u2019s daughters are also included in Panama offshores. Leyla and Arzu Aliyevas use Panama investments in the USA under the guise of \u201cphilanthropy\u201d in order to control a mobile communication company, the Azerbaijani Atabank and 6 goldfields.<\/p>\n

However, before the publication of Panama papers, Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova had already disclosed the information about the Aliyevs\u2019 offshore property. The journalist started her investigation in 2011. According to her, the president Aliyev\u2019s family gets rich on account of state funds.<\/p>\n

In January 2013, during voting in PACE, the report on 85 political prisoners in Azerbaijan was vetoed. German deputy of the council of Europe, Christoph Str\u00e4sser, introduced the report for discussion. However, Italian politician Luca Volont\u00e8\u2019s activity contributed to the rejection of the report. He received bribe from the Azerbaijani government in an amount equal to 2 million and 390 thousand euros for conducting activities in the interests of the Azerbaijani authorities.<\/p>\n

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported that 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\u2019s valuable industries and natural resources, including the family\u2019s majority control of a major gold mine that has been unknown until now.<\/p>\n

It was reported that in the middle of 2003, a few months before the October presidential elections, Azerbaijan\u2019s Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov started to create AtaHolding – one of today\u2019s biggest conglomerates in the country. Mammadov invited president Aliyev\u2019s family to join him and create a potentially powerful and profitable business-political partnership.<\/p>\n

According to ICIJ reports, AtaHolding is a corporation with an impressive share in Azerbaijan\u2019s banking, telecommunication, construction, mining, and oil sectors. As of 2014, its action assets exceeded $490 million.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cHigh Importance\u201d 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\u2019s son who is known in the files as \u201cA1,\u201d be made the beneficiary of 20 percent of the foundation\u2019s proceeds. The plan also proposed that the president\u2019s two daughters, Leyla, then 19, and Arzu, then 17, would hold 15 percent each. Mammadov\u2019s son held 30 percent while Ashraf Kamilov, a former tax ministry official, and other former tax officials held smaller stakes. So, too, did AtaHolding\u2019s chairman, Ahmet Erentok.<\/p>\n

Report Caviar democracy<\/a>