Diplomacy for sale

Recently in the Western and American press cases of publishing overtly anti-Azerbaijani material have became numerous. Of course, this is a matter of serious discontent on the part of the Azerbaijani public, which understands the goals and objectives of such publications, and who pays for them.

These publications are subject to certain factors, including an attempt to exert pressure on Baku ahead of October's presidential election. In addition, it is possible that the clearly custom-made speeches are related to the expansion of Azerbaijani- Russian relations.

For example, recently The New York Times published an article entitled "Options for the South Caucasus, signed by Dennis Corboy, William Courtney , Richard Kozlarich and Kenneth Yalowitz. It should be noted that Dennis Corboy served as Ambassador of the European Commission to Armenia and Georgia, William Courtney served as U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia, Kenneth Yalowitz - U.S. ambassador to Belarus and Georgia, and Richard Kozlarich was the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The article is replete with insinuations against Azerbaijan and demonstrates the apparent reluctance of the authors to present the real situation in the region.

Despite the fact that anti-Azerbaijani publications in the Western press are not news, this article draws attention to itself by the fact that one of its authors is the former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kozlarich .

What is interesting about this fact? This is the fact that, in general, the situation that unfolded around the post of U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan has certain nuances. Suffice it to recall the non-approval by the Senate of the candidacy of Matthew Bryza as the head of diplomatic mission in Baku, opposed to the appointment of President Obama.

Whether it is true or not, intelligence circles closely familiar with the situation speak about some curse on this post.

Richard Kozlarich worked in Azerbaijan in 1994-1997. The activity of this diplomat has been remembered for a long time by radical changes - there was a time when Kozlarich, whose body simply could not hold a degree of alcohol in the blood, left parties and receptions only with the help of his employees, barely maintaining a vertical position ...

However, this diplomat is really remembered for his efforts to promote the activities of religious sects that in many European countries are perceived with hostility. What guided ambassador Kozlarich at all possible and impossible levels to protect the interests of various non-traditional religious sects is unknown to this day. Whether it was an attempt to create a kind of "fifth column" in Azerbaijan, or personal problems in this way affected the psyche of a diplomat – this is not known. In this context it should be noted that one of the sects whose interests were lobbied by ambassador Kozlarich was headed by Silvio Matti. A representative of the organization "Saving Grace", a citizen of Finland, Matti was expelled from the Soviet Union in the early 80's. However, since the mid-90's Matti had been visiting independent Azerbaijan as a representative of the same organization, now using the auspices of U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kozlarich.

 

In the 1990s Western and some Middle Eastern intelligence agencies were actively looking for so-called "agents of influence" in Azerbaijan. They went to a meeting with representatives of the government, almost openly probing the ground, knowing that the country was still in its formative stage, and that careerists, conceited and arrogant people, greedy and unscrupulous, prone to adventurism, who consider themselves wronged in some way, would not be too difficult to recruit.

Then a dispatch was sent to Langley with a message that they had received an unusual offer and there had been a development of a potentially very high-level contact. For the uninitiated reader it should be explained that agents are divided into two types by their type of recruitment - those who are caught with compromising information, such as described in modern spy novels and films, and those who come themselves ( "I want to sell the scheme of the rocket" or "give me money to fight the regime"). The latter are also commonly known as "initiators". So there was a telegram informing that there was a high-ranking "initiator" ready to "help" under certain conditions.

This development was called the “Oil Baron". Chairman of the Milli Mejlis of Azerbaijan Rasul Guliyev – and he was the "initiator" who came with a tempting offer – at that time became a jackpot for the guys of the Research Department of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa of the CIA 's Directorate of Intelligence.

Later, when Rasul Guliyev had already fled into exile, everything changed. However, not everything – the lavish lifestyle which Guliyev loved still remained, including the house in New Jersey, and the "Rolls Royce " and plump checkbook , protected by U.S. intelligence from investigations by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) – everything was even better than it had been earlier. While in the U.S. every dollar is tracked and every phone conversation is potentially monitored, our "political refugee" with a seven-figure sum in several American banks lived in a big way, spending his belongings. The fear was gone, courage and ambition appeared, as well as working (and other) contacts with lobbyists, and the idea of becoming a political phoenix immediately came to mind...

Cunning and brash by his very nature, Rasul Guliyev decided to throw caution to the winds in order to return to the political Olympus of Azerbaijan. Using all his resources, "forgetting" about the contract with the resident Silvio Matti, he began to fill the pockets of lobbying organizations, which started working on the formation of his political image as a martyr. Now the "Oil Baron", so as to legitimize his political applications, hired his former curator – former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, member of one of the U.S. 'scientific' centers of universities, Richard Kozlarich.

After some years Guliyev, losing relevance, decided to remind people about himself. And, like the "father of some kind of democracy", in parallel he decided to repeat the option which helped him to move to the U.S., but now in favor of a completely different team. Guliyev sends a telegram to the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak , reporting in turn that "the rule of President Ilham Aliyev is causing serious damage to Russian- Azerbaijani relations, since the geopolitical interests of the great powers are ignored”, promising that if he had the chance he would do everything possible to ensure the stability of Russia's interests in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus as a whole .

Russian Ambassador Kislyak , being a trusted man of Sergei Lavrov, sent this manifesto to the Russian Foreign Minister and met with Guliyev to discuss the reasons stated in the letter. The details of the negotiations between Kislyak and Guliyev are unknown, but we do know something else - the Americans were very displeased with the meeting and, "by a strange coincidence", the U.S. tax system suddenly noticed Guliyev’s accounts in U.S. and European banks, checking for the source of income and possible fraud. By the way, Silvio Matti and his former patron Richard Kozlarich were “punished” for the loss of control over the "agent".

The work of Kozlarich was continued by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish (2003-2006), whose dreams of an Orange Revolution in Azerbaijan in 2005 were not implemented, despite the symbiosis with the former Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev, whose excessive ambitions have undergone a fiasco.

Farhad Aliyev was arrested on charges of attempting a coup in 2005 and is still serving a ten-year term of imprisonment. By the way, Farhad Aliyev was very, we could even say too generous to his contact. According to clarified data, only some of the gifts were sent to the embassy in 2004-2005. The rest – for example a beach house in Miami, a personal gift from Farhad Aliyev , clearly did not fit the category of "souvenirs”.

And Reno Harnish, despite the fact that he came to diplomacy through a contribution to the Bush campaign of a tidy sum of money, as a "reward" for his efforts to bring "brilliance" to the internal political life in Azerbaijan, was not even invited to the meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and the U.S. Ilham Aliyev and George W. Bush at the White House on April 28, 2006. Apparently, this is how American diplomats tried to ease the tensions in US-Azerbaijani relations caused by the incompetent activities of its ambassador.

An interesting fact is that the "cooperation" between Reno Harnish and Farhad Aliyev continues to this day. For example, according to leaked reports, a trusted man of the former Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Aliya Aliyeva transferred $80,000 to the accounts of a company (indirectly related to Reno Harnish) in U.S. banks in 2011, $320,000 in 2012, and $40,000 in the first quarter of 2013. That is, money from the convicted former minister was transferred to the account of the former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish, who once regularly used anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric.

In 2005, the Americans got another volunteer, or " initiator" – Ilgar Mamedov, now acting as a co-founder of the movement REAL, became the star of the new dispatch to Langley. In the dispatch it was stated that "since the meeting of Ilgar Mamedov in early 2005 at his own request with some Azerbaijani state officials on election to the parliament was not successful, Mamedov decided to offer his services to the United States."

Interesting fact: the officer leading this development was Donald Lu, who later held the post of Chargé d' Affaires in Azerbaijan. The same Donald Lu, who, according to well-informed sources, in addition to being known in some circles as "Madame Don", entertained well when he was still a volunteer in the devastating conflicts in West Africa, namely - in Sierra Leone. The same Donald Lu who later became famous for his insinuations, described in the materials that were declassified by WikiLeaks informants.

But let’s return to Azerbaijan. So, Mamedov was recruited by the U.S. Embassy in Baku, and after some time together with another member of the diplomatic mission - Dadash Alyshev – promotes his candidature to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan. Mamedov did not become a deputy; however, appropriate links with some U.S. officials were established. So, after some time, with support from some Western circles, the movement of REAL was created.

 

According to information provided by informed sources abroad, the task list of the "group" for 2013, in addition to participating in the riots in Ismailly, was supposed to include taking an active part in organizing the so-called “Plan of a Caspian Autumn". According to this idea, the unrest that began in Azerbaijan in October was to spill over to the other shore of the Caspian Sea - to the Central Asian republics. All this, against the background of the deteriorating situation in Syria, threatened to envelop the entire region of the Middle East to Central Asia with firefighting. Probably, the calculation in this case was to divert their main rivals (Russia, China and India, creating tensions directly near their borders.

It is obvious that such ideas are completely wrong and do not bode well for either the United States or their close allies in Europe, as not only the regional but also the global political architecture and energy security are threatened.

The moral is as follows: either someone in Washington supported a venture on the use of scenarios of pressure on the country following the example of 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, when elections were held in Azerbaijan, or certain groups thus seek revenge for the ongoing development of Azerbaijani- Russian relations. And in fact, in both cases, without the aid of special services and certain circles, this could not be done – well, random materials do not get on the pages of The New York Times!

Perhaps the Americans are really frustrated by the lack of any contradictions in relations between Baku and Moscow. However, in this case, there is no reason for such emotional disturbance. Perhaps some American strategists were embarrassed by Putin's recent visit to Baku, which removed numerous insinuations about alleged support by the Kremlin for the project of the opposition National Council led by screenwriter Rustam Ibrahimbekov. The belief that the Kremlin supports him gave the impression of the presence of insurmountable contradictions between Baku and Moscow.

However, Putin’s unambiguous position made it clear that Ibrahimbekov, even if he was a project of any forces in Russia, is not needed as a lever to influence Baku.

Well, the scenario of Russia jealously relating to all manifestations of a "warming " of relations between Russia and the newly-independent states is not the most pleasant for the American antagonists. However, it should not become another reason for crude, biased insinuations towards a strategic ally.

Those who love to communicate with their counterparts in a fiat tone, whether they come from the State Department building in Washington, Langley or from somewhere else, should realize that speaking in that tone with Baku is completely pointless and counter-productive.

Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate, however, under the condition that this will be an equal partnership in accordance with its national interests. Otherwise, our country is ready to defend its position despite any pressure.