![Caviar 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Caviar_001.jpg)
Caviar diplomacy is a
lobbying
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...
strategy of
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
, consisting of costly invitations to foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country.
Caviar
Caviar (also known as caviare; from fa, خاویار, khâvyâr, egg-bearing) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread. Traditionally, the ter ...
diplomacy also includes expensive gifts presented as "a tribute to the Eastern tradition."
[Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe](_blank)
// ESI, 24 May 2012[Council of Europe plagued by 'caviar diplomacy'](_blank)
// EURACTIV 23 03 2017[Will IOG go for Baku's 'caviar diplomacy' ?](_blank)
// Africa Intelligence, 9 02 2017 г. "Baku's "caviar diplomacy" which consisted of buying the good graces of certain members of the Council of Europe"
Terminology
The term "caviar diplomacy" was first used in 2012, in a report by the
European Stability Initiative The European Stability Initiative (ESI) is a think tank focusing on South East Europe and enlargement of the European Union. It has offices in Berlin, Brussels and Istanbul.
History
The ESI was founded in June 1999 in Sarajevo. Its founders, multi- ...
(ESI) – "Caviar Diplomacy – How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe". It was noted in the report that this term is being used in informal conversations of Azerbaijani officials to describe generous gifts to foreign politicians.
Investigation of the "European Stability Initiative"
According to the sources of the European Stability Initiative, Azerbaijan has a group of 10-12 friends in
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and 3-4 people in the secretariat who receive at least half a kilogram of black caviar (the price on the market is more than 1300 euros per kilogram) as a gift four times a year. Many deputies are invited to
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
and during their visits receive, alongside the caviar, numerous other gifts including: expensive
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
carpets, gold and silver items, drinks, caviar and money. In Baku, a common gift is 2 kg of caviar. According to the ESI, outside of PACE, there is no doubt about the state of democracy in Azerbaijan, which is characterized as semi-authoritarian even by its biggest supporters. Nevertheless, despite the fact that there were no opposition parties elected to the Azerbaijani parliament in 2010, the head of the PACE mission stated that the elections corresponded to international standards. According to the ESI, this can be explained only by "caviar diplomacy".
The ESI cited an example of PACE discussions in its report, when Azerbaijan was publicly supported by its frequent visitors – British Liberal Democrat
Michael Hancock and former Foreign Minister of Estonia
Kristiina Ojuland
Kristiina Ojuland (born 17 December 1966 in Kohtla-Järve, Estonia) is an Estonian politician. She was the Foreign Minister of Estonia from 2002 through 2005. She was a member of the Estonian Reform Party from 1995 till 5 June 2013 and from 2009 ...
, who, despite the obvious regression in human rights situation in Azerbaijan, the lack of free elections, as well as criticism from international human rights organizations, stated that there are no serious problems in Azerbaijan. The ESI also added to the list of "friends of Azerbaijan" the Belgian
Paul Vitte,
Eduard Lintner from
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
,
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (; born 5 February 1968) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 24 November 2015.
He previously served in the same position from August 2014 to August 2015. He is ...
from Turkey,
Robert Walter from Britain, and a number of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n representatives.
During the
2008 presidential elections
This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto list of sovereign states, sovereign states and their list of dependent territories, dependent territories. Referendums are included ...
, PACE observers included a large group of frankly pro-Azerbaijani MPs. The variant of the statement on elections, prepared by the head of the group of observers
Andres Herkel
Andres Herkel (born 14 August 1962) is an Estonian politician. He started his public activities in the late 1980s. From the very beginning of the independence movement in Estonia, he affiliated himself with pro-independence forces, which had clos ...
, containing critical remarks, faced the rejection of the pro-Azerbaijani group consisting of Michael Hancock, Eduard Lintner and Paul Ville. Herkel was forced to declare his resignation if criticism did not go into the statement. During the referendum, which lifted the limits on the number of presidential terms for Ilham Aliyev, four PACE deputies – Eduard Lintner, Paul Ville,
Khaki Keskin and
Pedro Agramunt
Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora (born 12 September 1951) is a Spanish and European politician. Agramunt is from Valencia and has served as a member of the Senate of Spain since 2008. He had previously represented Valencia Province in the Spanish Co ...
evaluated the referendum as the progress of democracy.
In addition to PACE representatives, observers from the
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (ODIHR) who have extensive experience of such observations, which revealed numerous violations of the procedure, which exclude the possibility of choice, were also present at the 2010 parliamentary elections. During the meetings of European observers, attended by PACE representatives in the person of Paul Ville and Pole
Tadeusz Iwinski, the head of ODIHR observers,
Audrey Glover
Dame Audrey Francis Glover, , is a British international lawyer, experienced election observer, former director of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (1994-1997).
Education
...
from Great Britain, noted numerous violations that were not contested by PACE representatives. Nevertheless, the preliminary result of PACE monitoring, presented by Paul Ville, noted the compliance of preparations for elections with international standards, as well as transparent and effective work of the organizers. During the election, ODIHR observers recorded multiple violations and unprecedented ballot stuffing. By the closing of polling stations, the elections were assessed by the ODIHR as probably the most fraudulent they monitored. However, speaking on
Azerbaijani television, Paul Ville stated that the elections were democratic and that he did not know about any violations. The ODIHR, in turn, subjected the elections to sharp criticism.
When asked if bribes were given to observers, Glover replied that she had not personally received one. After returning from Baku, a representative of the PACE group
Wolfgang Grosruck from Germany accused Audrey Glover of being "unreliable", unprofessional, and also of not speaking out in defence of the PACE representatives when questions about bribes were asked. The ODIHR report published in January 2011 contained extremely critical assessments of the 2010 elections.
Investigations of the ESI have received resonance in Russian and international media: ''
EU Observer'', ''
Politiken
''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been independe ...
'',
DR,
Radio Sarajevo
Radio Sarajevo is a radio station and magazine that began airing 10 April 1945, four days after the liberation of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina near the end of World War II. It was Bosnia and Herzegovina's first radio station. The first words s ...
,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, ''
Der Tagesspiegel
''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...
'',
Africa Intelligence,
''
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (''NZZ''; "New Journal of Zürich") is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality ne ...
'', ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
and others.
2013 Presidential elections
On October 9, 2013, Ilham Aliyev
was elected Azerbaijan's president for the third time. Observers from the OSCE / ODIHR, led by Italian politician
Tana de Zulueta, spoke of restrictions on freedom of speech during elections, while representatives of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
headed by
Pino Arlacchi
Giuseppe Arlacchi, also known as Pino (born 21 February 1951), is an Italian sociologist and is well known worldwide for his studies and essays about the Mafia. He represents the Democratic Party and is a member of the Socialists and Democrats ...
confirmed free and fair elections. The European Parliament and PACE issued a joint statement in which they highly appraised the elections. A group of observers from the US House of Representatives also acknowledged fair elections.
Varying estimates of the elections led to a scandal. On October 11, the representative of the European Union,
Catherine Ashton
Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, (born 20 March 1956), is a British Labour politician who served as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and First Vice President of the Europea ...
and European Commissioner
Stefan Fule, ignored the assessment of the European Parliament, including in its statement the results of the ODIHR. The Commission on Foreign Relations of the EU discussed the report of Arlacchi. During the discussion, representatives of the "green" condemned the report and said that it discredited the European Parliament. The head of the
Socialists' faction in the EU said that the PACE report cannot be considered reliable at all. It later emerged that a number of EU representatives traveled to Azerbaijan unofficially and on the dime of Azerbaijani organizations, which was regarded by ''
European Voice
''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the German-owned news organization ''Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices ...
'' as "stupidity or corruption", these trips were labeled "electoral tourism".
The
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
in its turn discredited the observers from the House of Representatives, describing the elections as not meeting international standards, and expressing solidarity with the ODIHR's assessment.
The turning point
In 2015, during the discussion of the resolution on political prisoners in the European Parliament, the text written by the pro-Azerbaijani rapporteurs initially contained almost no criticism, but as a result, a resolution was adopted calling for Azerbaijan to stop repression of human rights defenders, revising the law on non-governmental organizations, not putting pressure on journalists and there was also a threat of sanctions. According to the German deputy
Frank Schwabe, this was a turning point for Azerbaijan's "caviar diplomacy".
On September 10, 2015, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which Azerbaijan was condemned for "unprecedented repression". The resolution also called on the European authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of allegations of corruption against
President Aliyev and his family members, and to consider imposing targeted sanctions against officials related to the persecution.
Investigation of the Italian prosecutor's office and in PACE
In June 2016, the
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
prosecutor's office brought charges of corruption and money laundering to
Luca Volontè
Luca Volontè (born 17 March 1966) is an Italian politician, born in Saronno ( Lombardy). He has graduated in political science from the University of Milan. He is a member of the Union of the Centre.
Political career
In 1994, Luca Volontè ...
, the former head of the
European People's Party
The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...
faction in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. According to the Prosecutor's Office Volonte received €2.39 million for the support of Azerbaijani officials. Volonte's lawyers called these accusations absolutely groundless. According to the second ESI report – "Caviar Diplomacy. Part 2", published in December 2016, Volonte agreed to cooperate with the investigation and named many European politicians who have been lobbying for the interests of the Azerbaijani authorities. During the interrogations Volonte confirmed receiving €2.39 million for lobbying in favor of Azerbaijan. According to the ESI, the money went to bribing Italian and other politicians who voted against PACE resolutions and reports condemning human rights violations in Azerbaijan.
[Оппозиция потребовала от властей Азербайджана реакции на доклад о подкупе депутатов ПАСЕ](_blank)
// Кавказский узел, 21 декабря 2016 In the documentary film shown on
Italian television
Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940 all transmissions were interrupted, and were resumed in earnest ...
, Volonte also confirmed the receipt of €2.39 million, arguing that this money was transferred from a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Elkhan Suleymanov for consultations on agriculture. Payments to Volonte went through four British companies, which, according to ''The Guardian'', did not conduct any operations in Britain and probably are front companies.
[UK companies 'linked to Azerbaijan pipeline bribery scandal'](_blank)
// The Guardian, 31 December 2016
The Milan prosecutor's office accused Volonte of two episodes: money laundering and accepting bribes. The court of Milan, having considered the second charge, recognized Volonte's immunity for this episode, as according to the Italian constitution, a deputy cannot be prosecuted for his professional activities. Later, the
Supreme Court of Italy reversed this decision and returned the case to the Milan Court, citing the fact that the article of the Constitution is not about using his or her position for personal enrichment purposes.
Ex-ambassador of Azerbaijan to the European Union
Arif Mammadov told ''The Guardian'' that he spent about 30 million euros for the services of lobbyists as representative of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Council of Europe: "All members of the Azerbaijani delegation knew about this figure, although it never appeared anywhere. It was said, that the money is intended for bribing members of other delegations and the PACE as a whole." A number of PACE deputies said that they knew about proposals to bribe the European deputies.
[Fresh claims of Azerbaijan vote-rigging at European human rights body](_blank)
// The Guardian, 20/04/2017
Elkhan Suleymanov, the representative of Azerbaijan in PACE, was called the "curator" of Volonte and other European deputies. The European press cites examples of how Volonte recalled his requests to the PACE, informing Suleymanov that "your every word is an order for me". Through the company, from which Volonte received his payments, in total of about one billion euros were conducted. Attempts by Armenian MEPs to raise the issue of corruption in PACE came up against the opposition of PACE President Pedro Agramunt, another subject of investigation of the "caviar diplomacy", who deprived them of their voice and prevented the investigation. Der Tagesspiegel qualifies this investigation as "the biggest scandal in the history of Europe". After the publication in the media, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, called on Agramut to personally provide an independent external investigative body without any further delay. Agramunt and the leaders of the five political groups rejected the proposals of the CoE official
Wojciech Sawicki, which sets out the conditions for an independent investigation. However, after the visit of Agramunt to
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, the PACE Bureau expressed to him a vote of no confidence and in fact removed Agramunt from real power, after which in April 2017 the Parliamentary Assembly formed a commission to investigate alleged corruption accusations.
Its report was published in April 2018. In the course of several follow-up hearings to the report of the Assembly's Investigation Body (on 25 April 2018, 15 May 2018 and 27 June 2018) 4 PACE memberes were deprived of certain rights and 14 members, accused of accepting gifts and bribes from the government of Azerbaijan in 2013, were expelled from the Assembly's premises for life.
After 4 different court hearings held between 2018 and 2019, in January 2021, Criminal Section X of the Court of Milan sentenced Luca Volontè to four years in prison for taking bribes from Azerbaijani politicians.
Investigations in Germany
In March 2021 several Bundestag members and ex-members of the ruling
Union coalition became subjects of criminal investigations on the initial suspicion of corruption, for receiving payments from the
Azerbaijani Laundromat
The Azerbaijani laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in September 2017. The investigations exposed that during two years between 2 ...
money laundering scheme,
while others were implicated in allegations of corrupt lobbying practices, which led to intense criticism from members of all parties in the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
and became known as the "Azerbaijan affair" (german: Aserbaidschan-Affäre) in Germany.
In March 2019,
Karin Strenz
Karin Strenz (14 October 1967 – 21 March 2021) was a German politician who represented the CDU. Strenz served as a member of the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2009 and 2021.
Career
Strenz was born in Lübz, Meckl ...
, a German parliament member from the ruling
CDU party, was fined for failing to notify the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
of additional earnings from Azerbaijan. Earlier, she had been included in the list of "Caviar diplomacy" lobbyists.
On January 30, 2021, the Bundestag stripped Karin Strentz of
parliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians such as president, vice president, governor, lieutenant governor, member of parliament, member of legislative assembly, member of legislative council, s ...
, as she was accused of receiving bribes in the amount of at least 22 thousand euros to lobby for Azerbaijan's interests in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The case involves also the ex-member of Bundestag from
CSU
CSU may refer to:
* Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card
* Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code
* Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation
* Christian Social Un ...
Eduard Lintner, a former parliamentary secretary of state under the Minister of the Interior. According to the prosecutor's office, Lintner received about 4 million euros from Azerbaijan in the period from 2008 to 2016 and transferred a significant part of the money to individual PACE members, who were supposed to speak positively about the elections in Azerbaijan and oppose demands for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
On March 4, 2021, the German Bundestag deprived
Axel Fischer
Axel Eduard Fischer (born 5 May 1966) is a German politician. He is a member of the CDU and has been a member of the German parliament from 1998 to October 2021, representing Karlsruhe-Land since 2002.
Early life and education
From 1989 until ...
of parliamentary immunity, who is being investigated by the
BKA for receiving money from Azerbaijan to lobby its interests in the Council of Europe.
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
reported on the involvement of CDU MPs
Axel Fischer
Axel Eduard Fischer (born 5 May 1966) is a German politician. He is a member of the CDU and has been a member of the German parliament from 1998 to October 2021, representing Karlsruhe-Land since 2002.
Early life and education
From 1989 until ...
,
Mark Hauptmann
Mark Lars Carsten Hauptmann (born 29 April 1984) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2013 until 2021.
Early life and education
After receiving his Senior ...
,
Thomas Bareiß
Thomas Bareiß (born 15 February 1975) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2005. From 2018 to 2021, he held the position of Parliamentary State Secretary a ...
and
Olav Gutting in the "Azerbaijan affair".
The article also reported on TV Berlin, a local Berlin channel that broadcasts "regime-friendly interviews" for Azerbaijan. Other Union politicians who came under fire for their connections and support of Azerbaijan are
Nikolas Löbel,
Tobias Zech
Tobias Josef Zech (born 9 July 1981) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) who served as a Member of the German Bundestag, member of the Bundestag from 2013 until 2017 and from 2020 until 2021.
Early life and car ...
and
Joachim Pfeiffer.
Malta
In April 2017, the Maltese press published documents according to which the top politicians of
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
and the wife of Prime Minister
Joseph Muscat
Joseph Muscat (born 22 January 1974) is a Maltese politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020, and as the leader of the Labour Party from June 2008 to January 2020.
Muscat was re-elected as prime minister in the ...
received millions of dollars from a bank controlled by
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev ( az, İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, ; born 24 December 1961) is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003.
The son and second child of the former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev, ...
's daughter
Leila. According to the editorial investigation, Joseph Muscat made a trip to Baku in 2015, after which he called on Europe to give an objective assessment of the positive processes in Azerbaijan.
Paid Group Trips for Foreign Journalists after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War
In the aftermath of the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war
The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, the surrounding territories. It was a major escalation of ...
, the Azerbaijani government started arranging paid group trips for foreign journalists with the aim to disseminate Azerbaijan's narrative about the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...
and the recent war. Swedish journalist Rasmus Canbäck, who was offered such a trip but declined, has written a series of articles about these trips. His investigations are foremost about his colleagues in Sweden, but according to Canbäck similar trips have been arranged from several other countries, including Italy, France, Germany, Mexico and Peru.
[Bjudresorna till Azerbajdzjan fortsätter – ny grupp svenska journalister på plats](_blank)
// Blanksport, October 31, 2021 The trips, often all-inclusive with paid air tickets, VIP treatment, accommodations at luxury hotels etc., were usually arranged by an intermediator such as the Baku Press Club or the Azerbaijani Association active in the respective country. A conspicuous detail about many of the journalists who were invited to visit the Azerbaijani controlled parts of
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked country, landlocked region in the Transcaucasia, South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik, and covering the southeastern range o ...
was that they had no or very limited prior knowledge about the conflict.
[Gäst hos diktaturen](_blank)
// Blanksport, October 16, 2021
Based on his investigations and interviews with some of the Swedish journalists who participated in the trips, Canbäck writes that "the purpose of these trips is to spread an Azerbaijani view of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and that the opportunity to ask critical questions or control who and where to meet people has been extremely limited."
Journalists who asked critical questions received "burdust answers", calling such questions as "typical Armenian" and "Armenian propaganda".
One of the interviewed journalists, mentioned that "It was not even possible to refer to
Amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
or
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, because they were allegedly bought by Armenia and then the discussion was over."
Canbäck's investigations resulted in criticism from media and journalist organizations, questioning the judgement of the participants and their journalistic ethics, resulting in reprimands for some of the participants who either resigned from their positions or were suspended from any reporting which would involve issues concerning the Caucasus.
PK Södras ordförande avgår efter Azerbajdzjan-resa
// Journalisten, November 12, 2021
See also
* Azerbaijani laundromat
The Azerbaijani laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in September 2017. The investigations exposed that during two years between 2 ...
*Foreign relations of Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan is a member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the World Health Or ...
* Panda diplomacy
Panda diplomacy is the practice of sending giant pandas from China to other countries as a tool of diplomacy. From 1941 to 1984, China gifted pandas to other countries. After a change in policy in 1984, pandas were leased instead of gifted.
Im ...
* Ping-pong diplomacy
Ping-pong diplomacy ( ''Pīngpāng wàijiāo'') refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States (US) and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s, that began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Cha ...
References
External links
Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe
Plush hotels and caviar diplomacy: how Azerbaijan's elite wooed MPs
{{Diplomacy
Foreign relations of Azerbaijan
Foreign relations of the European Union
Corruption in Azerbaijan
Diplomacy
Political controversies in Azerbaijan
Bribery scandals