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Europe's Caviar Diplomacy With Azerbaijan Must End

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  • Europe's Caviar Diplomacy With Azerbaijan Must End

    EUROPE'S CAVIAR DIPLOMACY WITH AZERBAIJAN MUST END

    Baku - boom town, where a blog can land you in jail if the President
    doesn't like it (Photo: Sonke Henning)

    Today @ 17:40

    By Jacqueline Hale

    BRUSSELS - The recent revelation that Azerbaijan has pursued a policy
    of bestowing gifts of caviar on parliamentarians and officials at
    the Council of Europe comes as no surprise to those who follow the
    interactions of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (Pace)
    with the Caspian petro-state.

    Amid growing evidence of Azerbaijan's deteriorating human rights
    record and entrenching authoritarianism, voices continue to speak
    out in favour the regime.

    A recent Pace vote to define "political prisoners" in response to
    Azerbaijan's obfuscation on the issue came down to a knife-edge after
    intensive lobbying by the government trying to magic away the problem
    with the help of its allies among the elected assembly.

    A sorry tale when we consider that the Council of Europe - whose work
    is based on the European Convention on Human Rights - has a specific
    role as guardian of European standards in this field.

    Officials in the EU, which conducted a human rights dialogue with
    Azerbaijan last week, admit privately that caviar has also been on
    the menu in Brussels. Whilst there has been no concrete evidence of
    bribe-taking linked to policy outcomes, Azerbaijan's relations with
    parts of the European Parliament are cosy.

    The largest political grouping in the parliament, the European
    People's Party, held a February conference attended by Azerbaijan's
    foreign minister during which some of its leading members extolled
    the virtues of Azerbaijan's political reforms and the fact it "has
    made clear its intention of building democracy."

    In comparison to other neighbours, the EU appears to practice a form
    of exceptionalism towards Azerbaijan.

    Catherine Ashton, the EU's first High Representative for Foreign
    Affairs, recently released two widely contrasting statements on
    Belarus and Azerbaijan within days of each other.

    Though both feature side by side in various democracy indices and
    ongoing repression in the two countries is in many ways comparable,
    Belarus comes in for censure while Azerbaijan receives fulsome praise.

    Ashton's congratulatory statement on Azerbaijan confirms the argument
    that the European Union is taking a different posture towards its
    neighbours depending on whether or not they have energy to sell.

    In the event, Ashton welcomed the release of nine political prisoners
    under amnesty but neglected to mention that a further 60 remain
    behind bars.

    Following May's Eurovision song contest, pressure on activists has
    intensified. Arrests continue, including blogger Zaur Garbanli on
    drugs charges, days after he criticised the inclusion in school text
    books of a poem by the president's daughter eulogising her grandfather
    and former president.

    Senior government officials have targeted democracy activists and
    independent media calling for a campaign of public hatred against them.

    Activists involved in the recent Sing for Democracy campaign point
    to arrests of their colleagues on politically motivated charges,
    including photo-journalist Mehman Huseynov, who was targeted as a
    warning to others.

    Two journalists - Avaz Zeynalli and Hilal Mammadov - have been
    sentenced to prison terms on trumped up charges, bringing the number
    of journalists in detention to nine, according to the Baku-based
    Media Rights Institute.

    Repression is also being stepped up in the regions, away from
    international scrutiny and the recent UN Internet Governance Forum,
    held in Baku, offered further opportunity for arrests and intimidation.

    With intensive diplomatic efforts underway by the EU to secure a
    Southern Energy Corridor, Baku - presenting itself as a kingmaker
    in the initiative - poses a policy challenge to EU officials and
    parliamentarians, sharpened by the economic crisis and Europe's
    strategic interest in energy diversification.

    Commissioners travel to Baku to pay court or scold, depending on
    their portfolio.

    This is often, and incorrectly, framed as a values-versus-interests
    dilemma.

    The Arab spring demonstrated that when it comes to EU foreign policy
    towards its neighbours, values and interests are deeply intertwined,
    rather than mutually exclusive.

    Azerbaijan may be riding high on new gas discoveries at Shah Deniz
    and other fields which will likely fill the shortfall in hydrocarbon
    revenues as its oil output declines. But as much as the EU remains
    hooked on foreign gas, energy-dependent Azerbaijan, which sources 90
    percent of its revenues and 47 percent of annual GDP from hydrocarbons,
    also craves legitimacy.

    Besides Eurovision, its overtures to join key international bodies,
    such as the UN Security Council, its failed bid to host the future 2020
    Olympics and its attempt (with the help of a bribe) to secure a boxing
    gold medal at the recent London Olympic Games, attest to this need
    to seek the appearance of having met the standard - whatever it takes.

    Both in Brussels and Strasbourg a more vocal response to abuses and an
    end to the indulgence of Azerbaijan's ever increasing authoritarianism
    is needed.

    For the EU this means putting its new "more for more" policy into
    meaningful practice by spelling out that it expects Azerbaijan to
    improve basic human rights and fight corruption in return for more
    direct investment and closer economic ties with the 400-million-strong
    consumer market.

    The EU's human rights dialogue can play a role, by establishing
    benchmarks against Azerbaijan's performance on core rights issues,
    and by making them public - following the example of commissioner
    Neelie Kroes' critical speech to the Internet Governance Forum in Baku.

    For the Council of Europe, the continent's premier rights institution,
    it means putting an end to the caviar-fuelled farce and showing
    Azerbaijan the door.

    Jacqueline Hale is a senior analyst at the Open Society European
    Policy Institute in Brussels

    http://euobserver.com/opinion/118320

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