‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film was made with BP funding and the help of the country’s controversial ruling Aliyev family
By James Dowsett,

The BBC has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ the Azerbaijani dictatorship after broadcasting a film made with the support of the country’s controversial ruling family – and sponsored by UK oil and gas giant BP.

Audiences tuning into BBC World News in August were promised that they would discover “how Azerbaijan’s oil wealth enabled the capital Baku to flourish” and “gain the reputation of being the ‘Paris of the East’” in the BP-sponsored ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film.

BP spent £300,000 on the film, which was made by UK production company SandStone Global with support from a foundation and a media centre run by members of Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family. Broadcaster and historian Bettany Hughes, who co-founded SandStone, presented the film.

Emin Huseynov, an Azerbaijani journalist who fled political persecution in Azerbaijan in 2015, accused the BBC of “whitewashing a dictatorship” over the film.

The BBC has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ the Azerbaijani dictatorship after broadcasting a film made with the support of the country’s controversial ruling family – and sponsored by UK oil and gas giant BP.

Audiences tuning into BBC World News in August were promised that they would discover “how Azerbaijan’s oil wealth enabled the capital Baku to flourish” and “gain the reputation of being the ‘Paris of the East’” in the BP-sponsored ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film.

BP spent £300,000 on the film, which was made by UK production company SandStone Global with support from a foundation and a media centre run by members of Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family. Broadcaster and historian Bettany Hughes, who co-founded SandStone, presented the film.

Emin Huseynov, an Azerbaijani journalist who fled political persecution in Azerbaijan in 2015, accused the BBC of “whitewashing a dictatorship” over the film.

Husyenov, who was the subject of an award-winning 2006 BBC documentary which followed pro-democracy youth activists in Azerbaijan, told openDemocracy that the BBC had undergone “a shameful transformation and given the floor to one of the bloodiest and most corrupt regimes in the world.”

He also accused the BBC of being “passive” in its coverage of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and questioned the lack of scrutiny over BP’s ties to the Aliyev regime.

The BBC told openDemocracy that the ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film “is not a current affairs programme”.

“The wider geopolitical story of the region has been reported on extensively by BBC News services,” a spokesperson said.

Chris Garrard, from the arts campaign group Culture Unstained, told openDemocracy that media sponsorship arrangements such as BP’s “legitimise” fossil fuel companies as they continue to invest in new oil and gas infrastructure, rather than trying to meet net-zero goals.

Given the Azerbaijani regime’s track record of human rights abuses, the BBC film’s “positive cultural perspective on Azerbaijan” worked to “BP’s advantage”, Garrard said.

The film also implicitly promoted Azerbaijan’s claims to Shusha, a city in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that Azerbaijan seized from Armenian forces in the Second Karabakh War in 2020. Azerbaijan now wants to turn the region into a ‘green energy zone’ – with BP’s help.

Under its so-called ‘contract of the century’, BP is the largest foreign corporate investor in resource-rich Azerbaijan.

It has long faced criticism from human rights and climate activists for its ties to the ruling Aliyev regime, which has been accused of “electoral fraud”, the silencing of dissenting voices and benefiting disproportionately from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas wealth.

“BP needs to keep the [Azerbaijani] government onside and this [film] is a low-cost way of doing it,” said campaigner James Marriott, co-author of Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation.

BP told openDemocracy it aims to work for the “effective and responsible” development of the Caspian Sea’s energy resources for the benefit of Azerbaijan and the company.

It added that it has a net zero ambition and is working to decarbonise operations and develop renewable energy in Azerbaijan.

“We do not support individuals or political groups in any country,” a BP spokesperson told openDemocracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Hosting advertising and sponsorship outside of the UK, which is clearly labeled as such and is completely separate to our editorial output, allows us to invest in the BBC’s world-class journalism, which provides independent and impartial news across all topics, including climate change, the energy crisis and geopolitics.”

Curious travellers

BBC World News aired the two-part programme to its viewers outside the UK over a week in August – the same week that British audiences saw the BBC broadcast extensive coverage of the energy crisis and soaring household fuel bills.

Ads aimed at the “curious, eco-conscious traveller” were shown alongside the BP-sponsored film, as part of a brand deal between BBC Global News (one of the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries) and Azerbaijan’s official tourist board.

The BBC’s ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film is part of a wider editorial series, also presented by Bettany Hughes, which explores areas of natural, artistic and cultural interest around the world.

The BBC licensed the content for the two-part programme from Hughes’s production company, SandStone Global. The BBC edited the material, but the copyright remains with SandStone. The production itself was funded by BP, whose sponsorship was made clear on screen when the programme aired.

Each of the two episodes was broadcast globally five times in late August, flanked by travel ads for Azerbaijan. It was not broadcast in the UK.

A representative of SandStone Global told openDemocracy that it was “standard practice” for production companies to get support from “local organisations” for on-location services.

Baku Media Centre provided logistics support to SandStone, while the Heydar Aliyev Foundation helped the UK company secure filming permits and access to unique heritage sites, the representative said.

The Baku Media Centre is run by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s youngest daughter, Arzu Aliyeva. It works closely with the family-run foundation.

SandStone’s representative said: “[The organisations’ involvement] does not amount to editorial influence, as all decisions relating to our productions are made by the SandStone Global team.” Arzu Aliyeva was not personally involved in the production process, they added.

The BBC spokesperson said: “Whilst the original programme was not made by the BBC, the BBC alone has full editorial control over everything broadcast on its channel, in line with its robust editorial guidelines.”

BP supported the programme as a “contribution to Azerbaijan’s global promotion” in partnership with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, named after the former president, who led the country both before and after it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Heydar Aliyev was succeeded in 2003, after ten years of rule, by his son, the current autocratic president Ilham Aliyev.

The foundation is chaired by Ilham’s wife Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s vice president.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is tasked with promoting Azerbaijan’s image abroad, including by advancing the government position over Nagorno-Karabakh. But government critics say this work extends to diverting attention from the regime’s relentless crackdown on dissent and its systemic corruption.

“The foundation was set up by the ruling family to whitewash Azerbaijan’s image,” Arzu Geybullayeva, an Azerbaijani journalist living in exile, told openDemocracy. She added: “It can by no means be described as independent of the state.”

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.

Speaking at a launch event for the film in Baku in September, presenter Bettany Hughes said: “I understand history not through politics… I don’t get involved in politics at all.

“But I do go to places which have been extraordinary in culture. So it was exceptional for me to get access to places which when I came last time I couldn’t go to because there was too much conflict there.”

Disputed territory

Hughes was speaking about Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory – but had been under ethnic Armenian control since the early 1990s.

That was until 2020, when Azerbaijan started a 44-day war to take control of part of the disputed territory – as Ilham Aliyev himself recently admitted. Thousands were killed in the fighting as Armenian forces attempted to protect it.

Indeed, the BBC series featured a segment where Bettany Hughes travelled to the city of Shusha, in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan seized the city in November 2020 as part of its brutal military offensive. Prior to that, Shusha – known as Shushi to Armenians – had been in the hands of ethnic Armenians since the first Nagorno-Karabakh war three decades earlier.

Azerbaijan has now declared Shusha a “cultural capital”, and major efforts are under way to restore Azerbaijani culture in the city. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is leading restoration works in Shusha. Some of these works featured in the BBC programme, including a sequence shot inside a reconstructed Soviet-era mausoleum to the 18th-century Azerbaijani poet and statesman Vagif. The monument fell to ruin when the city was under Armenian control.

Speaking in Shusha in June 2022, BP’s regional president Gary Jones saidNagorno-Karabakh had the country’s “best solar and geothermal resources” – making it a “perfect opportunity for a fully net zero system”. BP is planning a solar power plant in the city of Jabrayil, which Azerbaijan regained control over during the 2020 war.

‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’, which did not address Armenia’s connections to Shusha or Nagorno-Karabakh’s bitterly contested history, was broadcast in the last week of August.

A fortnight later, Azerbaijani forces made further incursions into Armenian territory – the worst escalation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since the 2020 war.

BP’s Jones took to the stage at the Baku premiere of the film in late September to praise the “unwavering support of the [Azerbaijani] government” for his company and its co-venturers’ operations in the country.

Jones also spoke of the “joint effort” that went into creating the documentary. He thanked the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for its support and paid personal homage to the president’s daughter, Arzu Aliyeva, and to the Baku Media Centre she heads, “for their outstanding technical support” on the production.

Tourism campaign

This isn’t the first time BP has collaborated with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, or that the foundation has cropped up on the BBC.

Last year, BBC StoryWorks, the in-house content studio for the commercial BBC Global News, ran a separate tourism-focused campaign for Azerbaijan to mark the 30th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

The campaign included a paid-for advertorial that invited readers to “discover more” about Azerbaijan by following a link to an external website run by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The ‘Azerbaijan’ portal claims (among other things) that Azerbaijan’s current president Ilham Aliyev “has always focused on ensuring a fuller provision of human rights and freedoms in the country”. It also contains information about the so-called “Armenian problem”.

Azerbaijani officials have a long record of using dehumanising language and imagery about Armenians, including opening a “war park” last year containing weapons, armour and vehicles seized from Armenian forces and wax figures of Armenians – as the BBC reported in the UK.

The link was removed after openDemocracy contacted the BBC for comment.

BP, meanwhile, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation to jointly implement some of its social investment projects.

Previous joint projects have included sponsored films, such as ‘The Last Session’, a 2018 documentary commemorating the birth of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic – the short-lived independent state that was ended by Soviet invasion in 1920. BP spent $320,000 on the project, which was organised by the Baku Media Centre. Arzu Aliyeva was credited as the film’s executive producer.

In its statement to openDemocracy, BP said that its social investment policy in Azerbaijan – and elsewhere in the region – was “in line with our group sustainability framework.”

The company said that it has supported over 100 communities in Azerbaijan through educational and cultural initiatives, including projects aimed at building opportunities for advancing the energy transition.

Source: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/bbc-accused-of-whitewashing-autocratic-azerbaijan-in-bp-sponsored-film/

Naira Vanyan

Nikol Pashinyan’s government has given and continues to give many opportunities to make Azerbaijanis and Turks happy. The first was to keep the soldiers behind the bars and torture them, who became the terror of the Azeris during the Artsakh war. Manvel Grigoryan’s death, a witness.

For decades, the Armenian diaspora with its various political and social structures has been a big problem for our neighboring Turks. It has been raising the issue of genocide recognition since the 1915 uprising. The ASALA organization of avengers was formed and operated in the diaspora. The diaspora has always been and is behind Armenia, the clear proof of which was the various financial and moral support during the 44-day war. Diaspora Armenians raised a great noise all over the world against Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression and today’s genocide. In short, the diaspora has always stood like a piercing thorn in Turkey’s throat. The country that genocided the Armenians could not in any way silence or weaken the Armenian Diaspora, at least weaken its ties with Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan came to their aid in this matter.

Various large-scale events supporting Armenia-Diaspora relations were organized during the time of former RA presidents. Those events were quite well organized. structures related to the diaspora, the most diverse political direction, were invited, and they were large-scale. Such visits of our Diaspora Armenian compatriots were expected and took place in a warm atmosphere. People came to the homeland in families, groups, and communicated with people. The whole of Yerevan felt the breath of the Diaspora, there were no restrictions in communication with them, both for ordinary citizens and journalists. And when they left Armenia, they went with the hope and plan of a new return.

The Pashinyans decided to turn upside down and change these traditions as well. Of course, it is not easy for Pashinyan. When he or his wife enter any country, especially after the war, the representatives of the local community appear on their way and show their attitude towards them with “traitor” or other dishonorable exclamations. No leader of RA has ever received this kind of treatment, except perhaps Serzh Sargsyan, who during his football diplomacy toured Armenian settlements and met with strong resistance.

Pashinyan now feels that he is an “unwanted person” not only in Armenia but also in the diaspora. Of course, the diaspora is not homogeneous, there are people of different political orientation and orientations. There are still a small number of groups that still believe in and support Pashinyan, but not because these people are traitors and landlords, but because they are sure that “the former put this defeat in the pocket of the poor harif”. With this small number of people, Pashinyan could not initiate a large-scale event in order to form an imitation of close relations with the diaspora. The miserable event, which received the influential and resounding name “World Armenian Summit”, which started unnoticed and ended unnoticed, was taking place in a half-empty hall. The main speakers of the events were people who have never left a stone unturned in this country, and destroyed what was there. but with a serious expression on their faces, they gave lessons to our compatriots and taught them how to love the motherland. And Zareh Sinanyan accused them that Diaspora Armenians want positions in Armenia. Maybe Sinanyan was afraid that other Diaspora Armenians might take his seat. “Hraparak” referred to the composition of the diaspora at the “summit”. most of them live in Armenia or have recently returned from abroad.

And those who did arrive from the diaspora, mostly left Armenia disappointed. It became clear to everyone that Pashinyan managed to alienate the Diaspora from Armenia, driving a wedge between his own and non-own Diaspora Armenians. And Turkey certainly sees this and gets great satisfaction. Pashinyan did what no Turkish government could do for a hundred years.

#Erdogan, #Trump, #OZ has been defeated American People said “NO” to Genocide Denier OZ

Statement on Azerbaijan Aggression Against the Republic of Armenia and the Indigenous Armenians of the South Caucasus

The International Association of Genocide Scholars Executive Board strongly condemns Azerbaijan’s invasion of the Republic of Armenia and the ongoing aggression against the Armenian people in the Republic and in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and expresses concern about the risk of genocide against the Armenian population of that entity.

On 13 September 2022, Azerbaijan launched an attack on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. Using heavy artillery as well as multiple rocket launchers and attack drones, the Azerbaijani forces shelled the cities and towns of Vardenis, Goris, Ishkanasar, Kapan, Sotk, Artanish, and Jermuk and the surrounding villages in the Republic of Armenia. This attack resulted in over 210 confirmed deaths of Armenian soldiers and numerous civilian deaths and injuries. While a tenuous ceasefire still holds, Azerbaijan’s violence continues, including allegations of executions of Armenian prisoners of war. Over 7,000 civilians have been displaced, and civilian homes and local infrastructure destroyed in an attempt to ethnically cleanse Armenians from a large portion of the Republic of Armenia.

Significant genocide risk factors exist in the Nagorno-Karabakh situation concerning the Armenian population. Noting in particular that this violence occurs in the context of a prior genocide against ethnic Armenians in 1915 – 1923 by the Ottoman Empire (which became Turkey), and the continued relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan. In 1920, Turkey sought to disarm the Armenians and arm the Azerbaijanis, resulting in conflict, Armenian exodus, and atrocities against Armenians in an Azerbaijani offensive. Turkey continues to support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict (including through the provision of drones and mercenaries). Turkish President Erdoğan has referred to the Armenians as ‘occupiers’, despite centuries of history of Urartians and their descendents, the Armenians, in the region.

The current violence is part of a lengthy, related process of violence by the Azerbaijani regime against the indigenous Armenian population of the South Caucasus. There have been several armed conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno- Karabakh territory, in the 1980s-1990s, with the most recent beginning in September 2020 and continuing into 2022, despite supposed ceasefires. The current conflict has included the use of indiscriminate weapons, and civilian deaths and displacement.

Azerbaijani authorities have been openly delivering hate speech against Armenians. Acts of incitement or hate propaganda have targeted Armenians. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has specifically noted that the following acts are risk factors for genocide:

‘Systematic and widespread use and acceptance of speech or propaganda promoting hatred and/or inciting violence against minority groups, particularly in the media’; and

‘Grave statements by political leaders/prominent people that express support for affirmation of superiority of a race or an ethnic group,

dehumanize and demonize minorities, or condone or justify violence against a minority.’

Azerbaijan’s state policy includes anti-Armenian discourse and propaganda, including through government speeches and the media. For example, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has made statements such as: “Armenia as a country is of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad, a territory artificially created on ancient Azerbaijani lands.” Aliyev does not recognize the internationally recognized territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia: “We have perhaps a hundred times more grounds not to recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia than they have not to recognize our territorial integrity. Because everyone already knows this, and so does the world community, that in November 1920 our historical lands of Zangazur [Syunik], as well as Goycha [Sevan], were severed from us and annexed to Armenia. The city of Yerevan was ceded to Armenia on 29 May 1918. So, there are many factors for us, as they say, not to recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia.” Alyev also uses dehumanizing language, such as: “We chased them out of our lands like dogs. I said that we would chase them, that we would chase them like dogs, and we chased them, we chased them like dogs.” Such statements indicate a systematic campaign to end the presence of Armenians in their historic and present-day homeland. These and other statements demonstrate the existence of a risk of genocide, and may amount to incitement to genocide and possibly other international crimes.

There is also a history of cultural destruction in the conflict, leading to a significant fear from Armenians that after the peace deal, which saw the return of Armenian-held land to Azerbaijan, Armenian sites will be neglected, desecrated or destroyed. Some Armenian monuments and churches are hundreds of years old, such as the Saint Nishan church, Dadivank monastery complex and khatchkars in cemeteries, dating as far back as the 9th Century and earlier. It is common for Azerbaijan to present ‘alternative’ histories for Armenian churches, claiming they are ‘Caucasian Albanian’ and were ‘Armenianised’ only in the 19th Century. Such claims have all been debunked outside of Azerbaijan. Rewriting of history and cultural destruction are key hallmarks of genocide. The goal of génocidaires is to destroy, in whole or in part, the targeted group, and one way the perpetrators carry out this destruction is through cultural destruction: eliminating the very essence of the group’s identity, and any trace that they existed in that location.

The Executive Board notes that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has recognised the seriousness of the hate speech and cultural destruction by Azerbaijan towards Armenians and Armenian culture. In its Provisional Measures order of 7 December 2021, the ICJ considered Armenia’s claims of violations of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) plausible, and expressed concern that such violations ‘may have serious damaging effects’ on the protected group. In the interim before deciding on the merits of the case, the ICJ has ordered Azerbaijan, inter alia, to:

‘take all necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination, including by its officials and public institutions, targeted at persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin; and take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and discretion affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of workship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artefacts.’

Source: https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IAGS-EB-Statement-Armenia-Azerbaijan-Oct-2022.pdf

OPINION:

Longtime New Jersey resident – television’s Dr. Oz – is running for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania as a dual Turkish-U.S. citizen. That’s right: A citizen of a foreign country allied with an anti-America dictator,

That’s right: A citizen of a foreign country allied with an anti-America dictator, a carpetbagger to the Keystone State, and a veteran of the same foreign armed forces that occupy Cyprus, attack America’s Kurdish allies, persecute Christians, and abet Azerbaijan’s ethnic-cleansing of Armenians, is trying to convince Pennsylvania voters that he’s putting them first.

More distressing to Pennsylvania voters than Dr. Oz’s unprecedented dual-citizenship – which would be first for a Senator representing the state – are his close ties with Turkey’s anti-American dictator Recep Erdogan. Turkey is well known for running influence operations in the United States, lobbying, bullying, bribing, and even spying to get its way in Washington, DC. Questions about Dr. Oz’s loyalty to the Erdogan regime have raised concerns across the American policy-making landscape.

Benjamin Baird, writing in the December 23rd issue of The National Review (Behind Dr. Oz’s Curtain), raised alarms that “Oz’s links to Turkey’s authoritarian Justice and Development Party (AKP) extend to foreign agents and proxies accused of operating a secret lobby in the U.S. and spying on American citizens.” “These associations,” he stressed, “raise urgent questions about the Senate candidate’s loyalty to an illiberal, often antagonistic foreign government that finds itself increasingly at odds with American interests.”

Josh Rogin, in a February 16th Washington Post op/ed (Would Turkey’s president have leverage over ‘Senator Doctor Oz’?) noted Dr. Oz’s “myriad connections to Turkey and the world of its autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that are causing concern in Washington and beyond.” Rogin quoted NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom as saying: “People need to understand that Dr.Oz is in Erdogan’s pocket. And whatever Erdogan wants, that’s what Dr. Oz is going to do… So, if Dr. Oz gets into the Senate, it’s like Erdogan’s arm will be in the Senate.”

Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has said that “Oz’s dual citizenship –  and his reluctance to renounce Turkish citizenship – will keep the FBI and security managers up at night,” adding that it’s “fair game to question Oz’s judgment embracing the most reactionary elements in Turkish society.” Among these reactionary characters is Turkey’s Justice Minister, Abdulhamit Gül, who stood arm-in-arm with Dr. Oz at a Turkish parade in Brooklyn, and was later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for human rights abuses. Dr. Oz is also a known associate of Murat Güzel, a businessman caught up in multiple FBI probes regarding Turkish attempts to interfere in U.S. politics. To add insult to injury, Dr. Oz has also acted as a spokesman for Turkish airlines, a state-controlled carrier that has been implicated in Turkey’s human trafficking and the deployment of foreign mercenaries.

Americans of Armenian and Greek heritage are especially troubled by Dr. Oz’s association with deniers of the Armenian Genocide, Ottoman Turkey’s attempted eradication of all Christians within its territories. Among these genocide-denying misanthropes is Gunay Evinch, a Turkish foreign agent, who co-hosted a 2019 event that featured remarks by the television doctor. Dr. Oz has actually fundraised for Armenian Genocide deniers, including the Turkish American National Steering Committee, and has championed the Diyanet Center of America: Erdogan’s state-controlled system of religious institutions.  As recently as April 19th, NBC News reported that Dr. Oz refused to answer a simple straightforward question about his recognition of the Armenian Genocide – a crime condemned by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Senate in 2019.

For Americans of Armenian heritage – having spent the better part of the past century working, successfully, to end U.S. cover-ups of Turkey’s genocidal crimes – it would represent a betrayal of the worst kind, a shameful rollback of America’s commitment to human rights, to send to the U.S. Senate an ally of Erdogan, the world’s foremost Armenian Genocide denier.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/6/wizard-oz-pay-no-attention-dictator-behind-senator/