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Lobbyists Corey Lewandowski promised Azerbaijan to organize a meeting with Trump?

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Months after Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, quit the lobbying firm he co-founded after the 2016 election, he appears to be working with a new one, reviving questions about whether he is still cashing in on his relationship with the president.

The firm, Turnberry Solutions LLC — a name that calls to mind Trump Turnberry, the president’s Scottish golf resort — is staffed by two lobbyists who worked for Lewandowski’s old firm. While Lewandowski has denied any link to the firm, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Former manager of Trump’s campaign Corey Lewandowski may be involved in lobbying for Azerbaijan, Politico reported quoting its sources.

The article published by Politico website says Lewandowski quit the firm he was co-founding and appears to be a working for a new. Lewandowski now is trying to cash on his relationship with President Trump.

“In a recent conversation with Elin Suleymanov, the Azerbaijani ambassador to the U.S., Lewandowski promised that he could get the Azerbaijani president a meeting with Trump, according to a source familiar with the exchange,” the article reads.

Asked about the reports, Lewandowski said he did not do foreign work, while Azerbaijani ambassador said he was not aware whether Lewandowski was working for Azerbaijan.

Lewandowski was on a recent conference call between Turnberry and one of its clients, according to the client, and Turnberry also created an email address with his first name on it. A source familiar with the firm told POLITICO that Lewandowski also traveled to Poland earlier this month with two of Turnberry’s lobbyists to pitch the firm’s services to the Polish government.

It’s not clear when Lewandowski started working with Turnberry.

The firm started lobbying last month for two clients, Elio Motors and the Center for Sportfishing Policy, according to disclosure filings made public this week. The Turnberry lobbyists listed on the filings, Jason Osborne and Mike Rubino, are both veterans of Avenue Strategies, the lobbying firm Lewandowski started last year with another Trump campaign veteran, Barry Bennett. Lewandowski quit Avenue in May after a series of unflattering stories about him appearing to sell access to the White House.

Azerbaijan blacklists three US lawmakers over visit to Nagorno-Karabakh

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The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on September 22 called a recent visit to Nagorno-Karabakh by three US lawmakers a “provocation” and said it had blacklisted them, RFE/RL reports, citng Russian news agency Interfax.

Azerbaijan’s state-run APA news agency earlier in the week said the ministry had threatened to blacklist the three members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Frank Pallone, David Valadao, and Tulsi Gabbard visited Armenia and made a side trip to Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 20.

“Pallone, Valadao, and Gabbard paid an illegal visit to the occupied Azerbaijani territories, thus breaching Azerbaijani law,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev told Interfax. “All three are added to the list of undesirable persons in Azerbaijan.”

The legislators’ visit was “a provocation aimed at undermining efforts of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, including the United States, in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he told Interfax.

While in Artsakh, the U.S. legislators, who are members of the U.S. Congressional Armenian Caucus, met with Nagorno-Karabakh legislators and visited the Shushi Arts College and a cathedral.

Pallone said the legislators’ goal was to learn and educate the American public about the region.

“We try to learn about the military situation on the border and what measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the April war,” Artsakh Press quoted Pallone as saying. He was referring to a sharp uptick in violence in the region that occurred in April.

“One of the goals of our work is to contribute to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group,and we believe that the people of Artsakh should have the right to self-determination and have security mechanisms,” Artsakh Press quoted Pallone as saying.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years.

Populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence from Azerbaijan amid a 1988-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Internationally mediated negotiations involving the OSCE’s so-called Minsk Group helped forge a cease-fire in the region, which is not always honored, but have failed to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict.

 

Azerbaijan Laundromat: Merkel ally ‘received cash from regime’ – The Guardian

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Revelations over payments by Azerbaijan to European politicians have seeped into the German election as it emerged that a close ally of Angela Merkel allegedly received money from the authoritarian regime.

The revelations are embarrassing for the German chancellor who on Tuesday was due to campaign with Karin Strenz, a Christian Democrat member of parliament, in the Baltic port city of Wismar.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Strenz was paid between €7,000 and €15,000 sent to her via a firm set up by Eduard Lintner, a former German MP and lobbyist for Azerbaijan.

Strenz has refused to comment and did not respond to emails from the Guardian.

The scandal threatens to shake up what has so far been a sleepy election campaign, lacking any of the personal mudslinging or scandal-ridden offensives typical of the US or Britain, with Merkel’s CDU on course to secure victory. Latest polls show it to be on 36% – 14 points ahead of the party’s nearest rival, the Social Democrats.

Lintner was one of several prominent Europeans to have received large sums of money from a scheme nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, exposed this month by the Guardian and other media partners. Lintner admits the payments but says he did not personally benefit and he was unaware of the original source of the payments.

Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used the $2.9bn (£2.1bn) fund to silence criticism of the country’s dismal human rights record with a series of under-the-table payments made to leading European politicians.

Leaked banking data shows that Lintner received more than €800,000 through UK shell companies. Some of this money was paid to other parliamentarians in Germany and Belgium. The payments to Strenz in 2014 and 2015 were sent through Lintner’s company, Line M-Trade, based at the office of his Nuremberg lawyer.

She registered the money but the ultimate source of the funding was previously unknown. It is not known whether Strenz was aware of its origin.

Strenz has visited Azerbaijan on several occasions, including as an election monitor, and is chairwoman of the German-South Caucasian Friendship Group. She has posted a photograph on her website – slogan “Politics can be different” – with Azerbaijan’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev.

Strenz, a former teacher, has been a member of parliament since 2009. She is now under pressure to explain whether the payments may have influenced her voting record in Berlin and in the Council of Europe, where she is a member of the parliamentary assembly.

 

In June 2015, Strenz voted against a parliamentary assembly motion calling on Azerbaijan to release its political prisoners, who include several journalists. She was the only German representative who voted no. Strenz has given an approving verdict on Azerbaijan’s elections, in contrast to other observers who have been critical.

 

Alexander Lapshin: Let’s hand over Alaska to Azerbaijan

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Blogger Alexander Lapshin  who was jailed in Azerbaijan for visiting Karabakh and later pardoned by Ilham Aliyev commented on “recognition” of Karabakh as “Azerbaijani territory”.

In his message on Facebook, blogger, who is national of Russia and Israel, said he had been shocked not only by “obscurantism of the early Islamic caliphate, hidden under modern shopping mall, but humiliation of Azerbaijanis asking me to agree to recognize Karabakh as their territory.”

He added that Azerbaijanis have unfortunately turned from cultural national of poets and merchants into nervous and revengeful people convinced that “their future depends on Sasha Lapshin”.

“Do they seriously believe that I can decide anything in your conflict with Armenia and the world?” he wonders. “Today I am so generous to hand over…. Alaska to Azerbaijan!”

Lapshin said he could imagine how much Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko got in exchange for something with help of which Azerbaijan spoiled relations with Armenia and Russia, let alone Israel.

“And this because of a blogger. That’s where the money from the Caspian oil is plunging, while the people are begging for $ 100-150 a month,” he wrote.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY URGES CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF WORLDWIDE AZERBAIJANI CORRUPTION SCHEMES

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) sent a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Select Committees on Intelligence expressing concern regarding the undue influence of Azerbaijan’s caviar diplomacy, especially given a recent report revealing the “Azerbaijani Laundromat.”

In their letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings alongside House Intelligence Chairman David Nunes (R-CA) and Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA), Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian stated: “We are writing to bring to your attention our serious concerns regarding Azerbaijan’s attempts to undermine western democratic values and institutions, and the most recent revelations that it ‘operated [a] secret $3bn slush fund,’ in Europe,” as reported in a September 5, 2017 BBC article.

The scheme has been labeled the “Azerbaijani Laundromat” because of the vast sums that passed through it were funds laundered by a series of shell companies. According to an investigation of the Azerbaijani Laundromat published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), “from 2012 to 2014, even as the Azerbaijani government arrested activists and journalists wholesale, members of the country’s ruling elite were using a secret slush fund to pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, launder money, and otherwise benefit themselves.”

“We should not turn a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s out of bounds and corrupt influence on American democracy. Congress is familiar with the reasons why the Aliyev autocracy is trying to whitewash its human rights record, resolve the Nagorno Karabkah conflict by wiping out the Christian Armenian population, and ally itself against United States values. Azerbaijan’s unprecedented April 2016 attacks against Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia, where its ISIS-style mutilations and beheadings of Armenians have gone without consequence, speak for themselves. The recent revelations only confirm the vast amounts being spent to corrupt officials from doing what their electorates expect,” Assembly Co-Chairs Barsamian and Krikorian said.

The Assembly Co-Chairs concluded: “On Wednesday, the European Parliament – voting   578 to 19 with 68 abstentions – condemned Azerbaijan’s attempts to influence decision makers through illicit means and authorized a deeper investigation of its behavior. We urge your respective committees to do no less in factoring these new revelations in your ongoing investigations.”

In prior letters written to the House and Senate this year, the Assembly emphasized that: “we must ensure that Azerbaijan’s rampant corrupt practices do not compromise U.S. policies and objectives.”

Click here to read the Armenian Assembly’s letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Select Committees on Intelligence

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

Former CNN employee received $2.6m through ‘Azerbaijani laundromat’

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rbaijan, launAdditional revelations over Azerbaijan’s corruption scheme that have come about in the last couple of days have exposed a former CNN employee’s role in the scandal.

The report called “Azerbaijani Laundromat” by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that former CNN producer Eckart Sager received nearly $2.6 million from British companies including Hilux Services. The money was transferred to Sager’s account in the UAE.

The revelation notes that Sager, receiving money from Azerbaijan, published articles propagating the Azerbaijani visions on various issues or defended pro-Azerbaijani figures, Asbarez reports.

“One of the articles defends Italian parliamentarian Luca Volontè accused of receiving money from Azerbaijan and reviewing the report by the PACE on human rights violations in Azerbaijan,” reads the article that exposes Azerbaijani corruption deals.

Banking records revealing some 2.5 billion euro (US$ 2.9 billion) in transactions were leaked to the Danish newspaper Berlingske, which shared them with OCCRP. The two outlets then organized a collaborative investigation to track down where the money went. According to the Project, the money was spent on bribing European politicians, decision-makers, journalists and other figures to make pro-Azerbaijani decisions or depict Azerbaijan under favorable light.

In addition on September 14, former Azerbaijan Ambassador to the EU, Arif Mammadov announced another recent update on his Facebook page regarding the “Azerbaijan Laundromat.”

The former ambassador wrote that the next revelation linked to this corruption scheme is involving a sex-scandal with the participation of Azerbaijan authorities and MEPs.

“I have already written that the key lobbyist of Azerbaijan in France, the President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel and his wife are perverted and, sorry for giving so many details, they are fond of orgies. Almost all of the lobbyists have sexual deviations and strange sexual preferences. Baku was one of the beloved places for fun of different senators and MEPs. They come to Azerbaijan under the pretext of a working visit, but in reality they come to Baku for intimate relations and of course, it’s Azerbaijan who pays for all these. The hotel rooms where those meetings took place were equipped with cameras in advance and the authorities have videotaped everything.

I think our authorities, reading all these, will understand that I know much more,” reads Mammadov’s post on Facebook.

The former ambassador believes that footage might come to surface now there everything is out in the open.

The European parliament has called for an investigation into revelations by the Guardian and media partners that Azerbaijan ran a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) slush fund to pay influential Europeans to paint a positive image of the authoritarian regime.

MEPs have demanded a “comprehensive” investigation into “attempts by Azerbaijan and other autocratic regimes … to influence European decision-makers through illicit means.”

Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin urges Armenians to ‘stay strong,’ denies Azerbaijan’s suicide claims

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A day after arriving in the Israeli capital after being pardoned, Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin has called on Armenia to defend Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) at all costs and has denied official Baku’s claims that he attempted suicide in an Azerbaijani prison a night before that country’s president Ilham Aliyev pardoned him.

“Armenians, you stay strong. These people [Azerbaijani government] want to see you all dead. Period. And if you lose Karabakh as a result of negotiations, or weakening of Armenia’s position – know that they will come to massacre you. Like the Turks did a 100 years ago. Brutality has already surpassed all permissible limits,” said Lapshin in a Facebook post on Friday, according to Asbarez.

“I’m ashamed to admit, but before I went to prison, I sincerely believed that the Karabakh conflict was very controversial and must be resolved with respect for the national borders of Azerbaijan. What an idiot I was! Azerbaijan began the reign of terror against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, and Karabakh in 1988. In accordance with the Nazi scheme “juden frei,” only with respect to Armenians, not Jews,” said Lapshin on his Facebook page.

“Meanwhile, in the indictment against me, signed by deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan Rustam Usubov, the following is literally written “…accused Lapshin called the occupied Karabakh region ‘Artsakh,’ which proves, along with his friend on Facebook, Sergey Shahverdyan, his separatist actions,” explained Lapshin who added: “It is indicative that Azerbaijan, which insists on tolerance from morning to night, considers the Armenian name of Karabakh – Artsakh to be illegal.”

On the day of Lapshin’s release from the Baku prison, the Azerbaijani press published a letter that Lapshin allegedly wrote on the day of his pardon–and a day after official Baku claimed he attempted suicide–praising Aliyev, Azerbaijan and claiming that he was ill-informed about the Karabakh issue. He added that he wished for the liberation of “Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories.” His posts on Facebook following his return to Israel suggest that he might have been coerced into signing the letter.

In his first blog post since being pardoned and leaving Baku for the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv, Lapshin, who was serving a three-year prison sentence for visiting Artsakh and writing about the country in his travel
blogs.

Writing from Hof Hacarmel Beaches in Haifa in his Live Journal blog, Lapshin said: “I categorically deny the official Azerbaijan deception that I allegedly attempted suicide in Baku’s prison on September 10, 2017. According to Azerbaijani media, president Aliyev demonstrated humanity and pitied me for the suicide and pardoned me after the non-existent suicide attempt.”

He recounts in detail how the night before Aliyev’s pardon, unknown assailants entered his jail cell and beat him unconscious.

“Overnight on September 11 of 2017, when I was getting ready to go to bed in cell N10 of the Baku prison, I suddenly heard the sound of a key in the door, and the door opened. I was lying with my back to the door and wasn’t able to stand up when some people took me from the neck and hands and hit me several times. I don’t remember anything else. What I remember next was that I was in the intensive care clinic in Baku where I was hooked to some machines and an oxygen mask. My two teeth were also broken, while my entire back was covered with bruises,” said Lapshin in his blog.

“I think the attackers were either intimidated or the goal was to discredit the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan. My death in a Baku prison would be beneficial for some people who are close to president Aliyev, but who believe that it’s time for Aliyev to resign. I have to emphasize that this is my version despite the fact that it is based on the opinions of a number of Azerbaijani reporters and democratic opposition activists living abroad who are forced to live away from their motherland,” added Lapshin.

The blogger added that after a thorough medical examination upon his return to Tel Aviv, doctors said that the injuries suffered by Lapshin were consistent with physical abuse and not a suicide attempt.

 

“The doctors explained that a minor bruise near my neck and my right shoulder, and were not consistent with a suicide attempt since in the event of a hanging, the bruises would appear near the ear,” said Lapshin adding that he would never attempt suicide on his mother’s birthday, which is on September 10 and at a time when his extradition negotiations had entered their final stage.

The blogger also said that three days after the incident in his cell, he is still groggy from the medication he was given at the intensive care unit. He also said that he has difficulty eating was given an IV for sustenance.

There is a Specter Haunting Azerbaijan, the Specter of George Soros

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by Bradley Jardine,

In response to a recent string of corruption allegations and international criticism, Azerbaijan’s authorities have identified a scapegoat: billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Last week, investigative reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed a secret $2.9 billion slush fund linked to Azerbaijan’s ruling family. The fund was reportedly used from 2012 to 2014 as a means of bribing European politicians for political leverage.

The investigation has sparked severe backlash from Azerbaijan’s authorities, and they are blaming a traditional enemy – an ill-defined “Armenian lobby” – along with a relatively new bugaboo, Soros.

In a remarkable statement from the press service of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Soros is alleged to have worked in collusion with Armenian activists to smear Baku’s government:

We know that it is George Soros and his henchmen – who have an international reputation of cheaters, tricksters, frauds and liars in relation to Azerbaijan and its leadership – that are behind the campaign. The Armenian lobby, which acts in concert with him, carries out a dirty campaign against the President of Azerbaijan and his family.

Aliyev’s chief aide for foreign affairs, Novruz Mammadov, took to social media to criticize the philanthropist. “George Soros has gone so mad that he acts as a major actor in international relations,” he wrote on Facebook. “Let Soros answer, why did nearly 140,000 people sign a White House petition aimed at declaring him a terrorist and the organizations which he finances illegal?” he added.

The state’s tightly controlled state press was also quick to join the fray. On September 6, Azerbaijan’s Trend News Agency released an article headlined: “Who Are You Mr. Soros: Anti-Azerbaijan Campaign and Muslim Genocide in Myanmar.” The piece calls the ongoing catastrophe in Myanmar “his [Soros’s] recent terrible creation,” and continues: “It is obvious that after Soros got his hands in blood, he knows no moral principles and feels no tortures of conscience.”

A member of parliament,  Siyavush Novruzov, called Soros a terrorist: “This man is accused of committing economic and financial terror in the US, as well as damaging the economic interests of the state by creating an atmosphere of unfair competition. The fact of cooperation between this kind of man and Armenians is not surprising, because they share common terrorist features.”’

These responses, though relatively novel in their intensity, are not altogether unexpected. Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF) is active in 100 countries, actively supporting civil groups in Azerbaijan’s neighborhood, and has provided grant money to the OCCRP in the past. It also provides funding for EurasiaNet, which until recently was part of OSF. (EurasiaNet is now hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.)

Azerbaijan appears to be riding the coattails of the worldwide Soros backlash, which has been particularly strong among the growing illiberal movements in the former communist world. Soros-blaming also has achieved new prominence in the United States, with the Trump administration’s house organ, Breitbart, also frequently using Soros as a scapegoat. Much of Azerbaijan’s recent anti-Trump rhetoric invokes Trump and Trumpian terms. “Soros funded #fakenews,” tweeted Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hikmet Hajjiyev.

The billionaire’s relationship with Caspian state was not always so contentious, with his foundation establishing itself there in 1999 to improve transparency in the oil and gas sector. In May 2003, Soros spoke glowingly of Azerbaijan, arguing that it had the potential to join the world leaders in oil production thanks to its “commitment to transparency.”

Soros had taken a more critical stance by 2005. Writing in the Financial Times shortly before Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections, the financial expert called on Azerbaijan to reverse its ban on foreign funding for local election observers and strive for real electoral democracy.

The relationship continued to sour; OSF reduced its activity and technical functions of its Baku office in 2010 and formally closed shop on December 11, 2014.

One week earlier, Ramiz Mehdiyev, head of Azerbaijan’s presidential administration published a book titled: “The world order of double standards and modern Azerbaijan.” Mehdiyev lambasted foreign funded NGOs and warned of a coming “color revolution” in Azerbaijan – one of its prime instigators was said to be the OSF.

Nevertheless Soros’s operations continued outside the country and in January 2015, the Open Society Foundation Institute issued a statement on the intensifying campaign against civil society in Azerbaijan. Just prior to this Soros met with President Ilham Aliyev in Davos, Switzerland, urging him to end his brutal crackdown on civil society.

The following year, in summer 2016, Soros said that the West was “making a big mistake” by supporting the government in Azerbaijan.

Source: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/85091

Religious leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan adopt statement

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Religious leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan adopted a statement following theuir meeting in Moscow on Friday.

As a result of the trilateral meeting of the spiritual leaders of the region in Moscow, Russia; His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; His Holiness Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; and Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Grand Mufti of the Muslims of the Caucasus, made the following statement:

“Today, we the spiritual leaders of Azerbaijani and Armenia, once again met in Moscow at the invitation of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to discuss ways of a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, without which it is impossible to achieve reconciliation and comprehensive security in the Caucasus.

We attach a special significance to the consistent development of the peacekeeping dialogue, the continuation of the negotiations, and the international community’s mediatory efforts which will help to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.

We are convinced that disagreements can be overcome, relying on the moral values of kindness, love for thy neighbor, mutual forgiveness, and benevolence; propagated by the principles of good-neighborliness and traditional religions.

The Armenian and Azeri peoples will always live side-by-side, therefore there is no alternative to peace and cooperation. Facing many challenges, we, the spiritual leaders of our nations, are obliged to seek joint responses.

Together, we are called to care for the poor and the afflicted, to testify about the spiritual and moral values, and seek a peaceful and just way of resolving conflicts.

We appeal to our people to bring up and educate the youth in the spirit of goodwill and mutual respect, peace and traditional morality.

We, as spiritual leaders, express our readiness to defend the peacekeeping initiatives to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The history of the trilateral meetings of the spiritual leaders testifies to the positive impact of such contacts on the conflict settlement process, which should never turn into a religious conflict. We have great hopes in the negotiation process. The responsibility and duty towards our people motivate us to pursue tireless and consistent efforts for the long-awaited victory of the ideals of peace and goodness. We are ready to use all available opportunities for the peace in the region.

We convey to all our community children peace, welfare and success in their endeavors. We offer our prayers to the Almighty to overcome disagreements and to protect our people from evil and sin. May on the ancient and sacred land of the Caucasus be established blessed peace, and the people of our countries will live in peace and harmony and by God-given moral laws.

The delegation of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, led by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; and the delegation of the Caucasus Muslims Administration, led by Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade; express special gratitude to the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia for the organization of the trilateral meeting for the important contribution to a peace settlement in the Caucasus and wish His Holiness the support of the Almighty to continue this godly mission.”

UK at centre of secret $3bn Azerbaijani money laundering and lobbying scheme – The Guardian

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Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) scheme to pay prominent Europeans, buy luxury goods and launder money through a network of opaque British companies, an investigation by the Guardian revealed.

Leaked data shows that the Azerbaijani leadership, accused of serial human rights abuses, systemic corruption and rigging elections, made more than 16,000 covert payments from 2012 to 2014.

Some of this money went to politicians and journalists, as part of an international lobbying operation to deflect criticism of Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and to promote a positive image of his oil-rich country. There is no suggestion that all the recipients were aware of the original source of the money. It arrived via a disguised route.

But the revelations once again highlight the use of the lightly regulated British corporate landscape to move large sums of money around, beyond the purview of regulators and tax authorities. Seven million pounds was spent in Britain on luxury goods and private school fees.

The cash, contributed by an opaque array of paymasters in Azerbaijan and Russia, travelled to the British companies – all limited partnerships registered at Companies House in London – via the western financial system without raising red flags. One of Europe’s leading banks, Danske, processed the payments via its branch office in Estonia.

Danske Bank said “money laundering and other illegal practices” had taken place. It first noticed the irregular payments in 2014. Estonia’s financial regulator said systems designed to stop money laundering at the branch had failed.

The scheme has been nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat. Confidential banking records were leaked to the Danish newspaper Berlingske and shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Guardian, and other media partners. The data covers a 30-month period. It may show the tip of an iceberg.

The leaked bank records show multiple payments to several former members of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, Pace. One is Eduard Lintner, a German ex-MP and member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats. Another is the Italian former chair of the centre-right group in Pace, Luca Volontè.

The payments came at a time when Azerbaijan was under fire for arresting human rights activists and journalists, and for holding rigged elections. The regime sought to blunt criticism from Europe and the US by allegedly bribing delegates in what has been called “caviar diplomacy”.

This intensive lobbying operation was so successful that Council of Europe members voted against a 2013 report critical of Azerbaijan.

Lintner stood down as an MP in 2010, but remained a firm supporter of Azerbaijan. He founded the Society for the Promotion of German-Azerbaijani Relations in Berlin, which received €819,500 (£755,000). One €61,000 payment was made two weeks after Lintner returned to Berlin from a trip to Azerbaijanwhere he monitored the country’s 2013 presidential election. He said the poll was up to “German standards” – in direct contrast to official election observers who found “significant problems”.

Lintner says he received the money for his society, did not personally benefit, and was not an MP or Council of Europe member at the time. An Azerbaijani NGO paid for his election trip, he says. He says he has no knowledge of the original source of the payments received.

 

Details of cash given to Volontè emerged in 2016 and caused outrage. He received more than €2m in instalments via his Italian-based Novae Terrae foundation. Prosecutors in Milan have indicted him for money laundering and corruption.

Volontè denies wrongdoing. He is seeking to have the case thrown out.

The data also shows money being paid via the British companies to Kalin Mitrev, a Bulgarian appointed last year to the board of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Mitrev received at least €425,000 for private consulting work from a local Azeri company, Avuar Co. He acknowledges the payments and says they were for legitimate business consultancy. He denies all knowledge of the conduit used to execute them or the original source of the funds.

“All the income, generated by activities in different countries, was duly reported and taxed in my country of residence, Bulgaria,” Mitrev said. His consultancy work stopped when he joined the London bank, he said.

The revelation that her husband consulted for an Azeri company might prove awkward for Mitrev’s wife, Irina Bokova, who is the director general of Unesco. Bokova has bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. She also hosted a photo exhibition at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, entitled Azerbaijan – A Land of Tolerance. The Heydar Aliyev foundation organised the event.