Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/812895
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 19 APRIL 2017 News 7 society crackdowns prefers total political control in the face of a falling currency and rising prices. In February, he an- nounced that his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva would become first vice president, "a move that elimi- nated any lingering illusions that the country was an electoral democracy rather than a family dynasty," De Waal said in his analysis. "Shutting down all public de- bate evidently appeared more attractive to Baku than EITI membership. The Azerbaijani government seems to believe it can avoid getting hurt by EITI suspension. This is chief ly be- cause almost all of the inter- national financing for its first two gas pipeline projects – ex- pansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and of the Trans-Ana- tolian Natural Gas Pipeline in Turkey – is almost complete. The Greece-Italy Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project also looks fairly secure, as long as a deal is made to guarantee the future of some ancient olive groves in southern Italy." Additionally, in February the Trump administration repealed the Cardin-Lugar amendment, which required oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments above $100,000 to for- eign governments, essentially preventing energy companies from doing dubious business with foreign petro-elites. "It is a heav y blow to the ef- fort of building an international culture of transparency, as en- visaged by the EITI. The Azer- baijanis will have noted this U.S. move with approval and may believe that in this new context, the reputational damage they suffer from pulling out of the EITI will not be so severe," De Waal said. European pressure Without the EITI reining in Azerbaijan's excesses through the power of diplomacy, it will be up to the EU – with its inter- est in obtaining Caspian gas by 2020 – to demand transparency and urgent reforms in democ- racy and governance. Malta's demand for gas is mi- niscule in the framework of Eu- rope's energy needs, with policy decisions here hardly registered on the radar of Azerbaijani pol- icy let alone strong enough to inf luence its human rights record. In Malta, foreign min- ister Elmar Mammad- yarov conveyed Azer- baijan's interest to further cement ties of cooperation with Mal- ta, with bilateral coop- eration already seeing steady progress in the energy sector. Azerbaijan seeks to consolidate relations with the EU, with Mam- madyarov probably hop- ing he can leverage his country's relationship with Malta to support Azerbaijan's aspirations during upcoming negotiations on the new EU- Azerbaijan Framework Agree- ment, which will be held in Baku next week. "Issues concerning stability and security were discussed at length between the two min- isters, with exchanges focus- ing mainly on pressing re- gional issues, particularly the Nagorno-Karabakh conf lict," a government spokesperson said. "Minister Vella underlined the decisive role that the OSCE has to play, and reiterated Malta's support for the work of the Minsk Co-Chairs. Reference was also made to the latest de- velopments in Syria, Libya and Ukraine. Global cooperation within international organisa- tions was also discussed." Foreign minister George Vella underlined Malta's commit- ment, also as the current Presi- dency of the Council of the Eu- ropean Union, to continue to build upon the momentum reg- istered at the Riga Summit. Caviar diplomacy Not even EU parliamentarians are immune to the effects of Azerbaijan's 'caviar diplomacy'. An upcoming trial in Milan of Luca Volonte, an Italian mem- ber of the Parliamentary As- sembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will show how investi- gators uncovered €2.39 million in payments to Volonte through British and offshore compa- nies. Most of the funding came through the British company Hilux Services LLP and its ac- count in an Estonian bank from Baktelekom MMC, a limited lia- bility corporation in Azerbaijan. The payments, prosecutors al- lege, were made in exchange for Volonte's efforts to mute the Eu- ropean body's criticism of Azer- baijan's human rights record: the Strässer Report was penned by German MP Christoph Strässer, who was however denied a visa to visit Azerbaijan three times. With the help of civil society activist Anar Mammadli, who provided information for the re- port, PACE endorsed the report 125-79 with 20 abstentions. In the process, as much as €1 billion was funnelled into the account of British Hilux Servic- es LLP between December 2013 and December 2014, leading to suspicions that the corruption scheme could be much bigger than the Volonte case. The journalist Khadija Ismay- ilova, imprisoned for her role in uncovering the interests of the kleptocratic Aliyev family, says that Baktelekom MMC – not to be confused with the state- owned telecoms company Bak- telecom – is linked to Azerbai- jani businessman Rasim Asadov, who has a business partnership in another venture with Mir Jalal Pashayev, a cousin of Azer- baijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. The money transferred to Vo- lonte came from accounts in the Estonia branch of Danske Bank and originated from Baktelekom MMC. "Soon after the vote, the gov- ernment arrested eight members of the NIDA Civic Union, an in- dependent youth movement that was organizing protests against alleged corruption within the country's armed forces. One of them, Ilkin Rustamzade, is still in prison," Ismayilova writes. "Ilgar Mammadov, the chair- man of the opposition Republi- can Alternative movement who had announced his candidacy for presidency in the 2013 elec- tions, was also arrested and remains in custody. The Euro- pean Court of Human Rights has called his arrest politically motivated. Anar Mammadli, the activist who worked on the report, was arrested in Decem- ber 2013 and released in March 2016. High-profile arrests of ac- tivists and journalists have con- tinued, and activists say that the authorities now hold 145 politi- cal prisoners." The Southern Gas Corridor: the passage of gas from Shah Deniz 2 across Turkey and into Greece and Italy is a billion- dollar three- pipeline project which the EU wants so that it reduces dependence on Russian gas Azerbaijani opposition leader and political prisoner Ilgar Mammadov: his arrest and detention has been slammed by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights