Tag: Ilham Aliyev

Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan repeatedly states that he ignores all international criticisms regarding his violations of the human rights of his own citizens, war crimes by his soldiers, and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians. Aliyev tries to cover up these violations and crimes through ‘Caviar diplomacy,’ by providing billions of dollars in bribes to various European officials.

Anytime Azerbaijan has a problem with a foreign country, Europeans institutions or international courts, he puts on a brave face and acts like nothing has happened. He repeatedly says, “I don’t care who says what, I will do what I want.”

I would like to cite a recent example of Aliyev being so bothered by such issues that, rather than ignoring them, has gone to unusual lengths to resolve them.

This example has to do with France. In recent months, Aliyev has been quite outspoken with his harsh criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron for supporting Armenia. Aliyev has refused to meet with Pres. Macron and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to discuss the Artsakh conflict. Aliyev also complained about France selling a number of armored personnel carriers to Armenia. While spending billions of dollars to arm Azerbaijan with the latest Israeli and Turkish drones and missiles, Aliyev dares to complain about Armenia procuring a limited number of arms to defend itself.

Late last year, the Azerbaijan-France confrontation got more heated when Azerbaijan expelled two French embassy officials from Baku and in return France expelled two Azeri embassy officials from Paris.

The Intelligence Online website reported that, according to its confidential sources, Azerbaijan’s intelligence services asked Mossad, Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, to intervene with France to resolve their outstanding conflicts.

According to confidential Mossad sources, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Intelligence Service (XKX), led by General Orkhan Sultanov, asked his counterpart in Israel to intervene with the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE) of France to deescalate the tension between Baku and Paris. Azerbaijan indicated that it would not want to worsen the existing dispute.

However, the Azeri effort failed, as Mossad did not transmit the Azeri request to France, according to Intelligence Online sources. This was a delicate issue for Israel as it wanted on one hand to preserve its good relations with Azerbaijan, while on the other hand Israel’s intelligence agency did not want to attempt such mediation at a time when it was preoccupied with the conflict in Gaza and other Middle Eastern hot spots.

Intelligence Online reported that Mossad enjoys a high degree of influence over Baku, since Israel uses the Azeri territory for its operations in Iran. When Mossad stole Iran’s nuclear documents from Tehran in 2018, Israel’s agents used Azerbaijan’s border to flee from Iran. In return, Mossad greatly facilitated Azerbaijan’s acquisition of sophisticated weapons from Israel, which aided Baku, the second largest buyer of Israeli arms, to score victories in 2020 and 2023 in Artsakh. Just before the attack on Artsakh in September 2023, Azerbaijan’s security services informed the experts of Mossad and Unit 8200 (Aman) of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate of their plans and sought their advice.

According to Intelligence Online, Mossad has in recent years brought its cooperation with the French External Security Directorate to a higher operational level, notably on Iran. The French Agency has also been mobilized over the situation in Gaza.

The new director of French Intelligence Agency, Nicolas Lerner, met with David Barnea, the director of Mossad when the latter came to Paris in the last week of January. Attending the closed-door meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian issue were Abbas Kamel, head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (Mukhabarat el-amma); Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet, Israel’s Internal Security Agency; William Barnes, head of the CIA; and Qatari officials.

Intelligence Online importantly reported that the CIA let Baku know that it was not pleased with Azerbaijan’s conflict with French Intelligence, while France is trying to hinder Moscow in the Caucasus and needs Azerbaijan’s platform.

Having exposed Aliyev’s deception about ignoring international pressure on Azerbaijan, my advice to the international community is to continue pressuring Aliyev to stop his unacceptable behavior. Otherwise, he will go on with his multitude of ever-increasing violations and crimes, causing great harm to Azeris and Armenians alike.

Next week, I will expose another one of Aliyev’s efforts to counter international pressures on Azerbaijan, despite his denials of not paying any attention to them.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly states: “I doesn’t care who says what about my country, I will continue doing whatever I want.” However, this is a cover up. Regardless of his public tough talk, Azerbaijan is working behind the scenes to manage its conflicts with other countries.

Last week, I wrote that Azerbaijan asked the Israeli government to intercede with France to improve their relations which have deteriorated in recent years due to the French support of Armenia in the Artsakh conflict. Since Israel turned down Aliyev’s request to mediate with France, Azerbaijan started looking for other channels to resolve its problems with Europe.

After the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) suspended Azerbaijan’s membership, Aliyev asked the League of Arab States to intervene with Europeans to restore Azerbaijan’s status. On February 13, 2024, at Azerbaijan’s request, Adel bin Abdul Rahman Al-Asoomi, the President of the Arab League’s Parliament, sent a letter to the President of PACE, Theodoros Rousopoulos, complaining about the resolution PACE had adopted refusing to ratify the credentials of the delegation of Azerbaijan.

The President of the Arab Parliament told PACE: “The Arab Parliament expresses its deep regret over the adoption of this resolution; the Republic of Azerbaijan is a friend and strategic partner of the Arab States and plays a significant and influential role to preserve cultural diversity and to promote dialogue among civilizations. …The Republic of Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe since 2001 and plays a major role in promoting activities of this Organization and achieving its principles and objectives. At the global level, it makes concerted efforts to lower tensions and conflicts….”

The President of the Arab Parliament then counseled PACE: “Multilateral parliamentary diplomacy must be an instrument to reconcile points of view, and a wall of resistance in front of any divisions, and an added value for the diffusion of the principles of peace and tolerance.”

The letter ended by urging PACE to reconsider its earlier resolution that had refused to ratify the credentials of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation “which contradict the principles of dialog and cooperation.”

Naturally, Azerbaijan’s Parliament (Milli Majlis) immediately publicized the Arab Parliament’s letter which was also published by several Azeri newspapers.

It is very odd that the Arab Parliament would intervene with PACE on a matter that has nothing to do with Arab states. Azerbaijan is neither a member nor an observer of the Arab League. How can the President of the Arab Parliament call Azerbaijan “a friend and strategic partner of Arab States,” when it is an ally of Israel and buys billions of dollars of Israeli weapons? That is the reason Azerbaijan’s request in the past for observer status was rejected by the Arab League. The only possible explanation for the Arab Parliament’s willingness to write a letter to PACE is that Azerbaijan was engaged in its usual practice of ‘Caviar Diplomacy,’ meaning that it made a very generous donation to the Arab League. Therefore, the Arab Parliament’s statement about Azerbaijan seeking dialog and peace has nothing to do with reality.

Since Armenia has had an Observer status with the League of Arab States since 2005, I am curious to know if Armenia’s representative in the League was aware that the Arab Parliament was considering sending such a letter to PACE in support of Azerbaijan. If yes, what actions, if any, he or she took to object to sending such a letter?

In addition to the Arab League, Azerbaijan is pursuing its lobbying efforts at PACE through its big brother Erdogan, the President of Turkey. Yasar Yakis, the former Foreign Minister of Turkey and founder of the ruling AK Party, wrote in ARAB NEWS on February 25: “Turkey has strongly opposed the suspension of Azerbaijan [from PACE]…. Even if Azerbaijan’s membership of the Council of Europe is suspended, it could survive without being a member.”

Earlier in February, when Aliyev visited Erdogan in Ankara, the Turkish President pledged to do everything possible “to get Azerbaijan’s credentials validated at PACE. We will continue our support and efforts for Azerbaijan until the decision [not ratifying its credentials] is overturned.” Erdogan added that Turkey will stress that PACE should be a platform for “parliamentary democracy rather than conflict.” However, Aliyev and Erdogan do not have parliamentary democracy and peace in their own countries.

If Aliyev truly did not care what actions other countries take against Azerbaijan, he would not have gone to such great lengths to lobby the Arab League and Pres. Erdogan to restore his country’s credentials at PACE. He would have simply ignored PACE’s decision.

The truth is that Aliyev deeply cares about his image. Most dictators, having violated all sorts of domestic and international laws, do everything possible to whitewash their crimes and try to look like an angel in the eyes of the world.

Pres. Ilham Aliyev, the dictator of Baku, gave a 2.5-hour-long press conference to Azeri journalists on January 10, 2024, during which he spewed not only his usual lies, but also made threats to Armenia’s very existence. Here are the highlights of Aliyev’s extremely arrogant and alarming words, emboldened by his military victories in the 2020 and 2023 Artsakh wars.

To begin with, Aliyev claimed that “Today’s Azerbaijan is among the strongest countries of the world in the truest sense of the word.” This is not true. According to the globalfirepower.com website, as of 2024, Azerbaijan’s military is ranked 59th in the world. This is far from being one of the strongest countries in the world. Had it not been for the direct control of the Azeri military by Turkish Generals and bringing terrorist mercenaries from Syria during the 2020 Artsakh war, Azerbaijan would not have been able to defeat Artsakh. Aliyev admitted during his press conference that Azerbaijan enjoyed the full backing of Turkey during the 2020 war.

Pres. Aliyev justified Azerbaijan’s serious violations of human rights, even genocide against Artsakh Armenians, by stating: “I have repeatedly said that international law does not work. These mechanisms are deployed only for the weaker countries. Bigger states ignore them. For them, it is as if law is not law, international law is not law. Under such circumstances, countries that demand justice, and rightly so, must secure this justice themselves.”

Aliyev admitted the difficulties that Azerbaijan’s military faced during the 2020 war: “Had the war continued [after Nov. 10, 2020], it would have been very difficult to liberate the Kalbadjar and Lachin districts, especially in the winter season. However, we would have done that too. But our losses could have been extremely high, even higher than in the 44-day war. We all knew that well, because even now anyone visiting those regions can see how challenging the terrain is. However, if Armenia had not signed the act of capitulation, we would have continued the war until the end.”

Aliyev’s next lie is that after the 2020 war, Armenia was “illegally transporting weapons, ammunition, mines and manpower to Karabakh.” This never happened. Aliyev used it as a pretext to attack Artsakh.

The President of Azerbaijan revealed that before the Sept. 19, 2023 Azeri attack on Artsakh, “some of the local Armenians contacted our representatives and made suggestions about contacts, and we did not reject that.” Any Armenian who made secret contacts with the enemy should be considered a traitor.

Aliyev then made another important admission. He said that, during the Sept. 19, 2023 attack on Artsakh, “had they [Artsakh Armenians] not surrendered, they would have been eliminated. There was no other option.” Aliyev is thus confirming that Artsakh leaders had no choice but to surrender in order to save the lives of 120,000 Artsakh Armenians.

Aliyev confirmed that he had planned the arrest of Artsakh leaders who are now held in a Baku jail: “our position regarding the leaders of the separatists was unequivocal — their capture. Some of them tried to escape from there through the Lachin road, others were found in Khankendi [Stepanakert], and elsewhere. We knew their whereabouts.” He added that “only two people are missing from that group — they are in Yerevan.” Aliyev meant Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan.

Pres. Aliyev disclosed that he had personally warned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the impending Azeri attack on Artsakh on Sept. 19, 2023: “I told both the Armenian leadership and international actors that I could press the button and carry out this operation in a minute and they would not be able to do anything.”

Aliyev also vented his anger at France’s support for Armenia, condemned that country’s colonial past and alleged that Paris had committed genocide against 1.5 million Algerians. He also ridiculed Armenia’s recent purchase of French armored personnel carriers, by calling them “tin cans” which are not “a real threat to us.”

Aliyev also rejected the latest Pashinyan initiative — ‘Crossroads of Peace’– which is supposed to link Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Iran. Aliyev said that this is just a PR campaign meant to replace his preferred ‘Zangezur Corridor.’ Ignoring Armenia’s sovereignty, Aliyev insisted that Armenia allow Azeri cargo to pass from Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Meghri, Armenia, without any inspection or customs clearance. If not, Aliyev warned, Azerbaijan will continue its blockade of Armenia.

The President of Azerbaijan bragged that there is no longer any mention of Karabagh in the ‘Peace Treaty’ being negotiated between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Aliyev dismissed Pashinyan’s suggestion to demarcate the mutual border between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of the 1975 Soviet maps, preferring older maps which he claimed gave Azerbaijan much more territory. He also mentioned the ridiculous notion that ‘Irevan’ (Yerevan) is an ancient Azeri city. Aliyev also claimed that there are eight Azeri villages which are located within Armenia. Importantly, Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan will not withdraw its military from parts of the territory of the Republic of Armenia it has occupied since May 2021 and September 2022. He suggested that Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a peace treaty now, leaving the demarcation of the border to a future date.

Facing such an arrogant and warmongering leader as Aliyev, Pashinyan should stop begging for peace which is a sign of weakness, giving Azerbaijan the opportunity to demand more concessions from Armenia. Armenia’s top two priorities should be having a competent leader and a powerful military to fend off threats from its two enemies: Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Even though Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkish and Israeli weapons and hired Islamic terrorists, won the 2020 Artsakh War, Pres. Aliyev has been destroying his country’s international reputation.

With his barbaric actions during and since the war, Aliyev has undermined the interests of Azerbaijan. As a result, he has made himself a hated pariah and the laughing stock of the entire world. While Russia is cuddling him for its own political interests, the West is tolerating him to benefit from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas.

I am very pleased that Aliyev is doing so many negative things in the eyes of not only Armenians, but also the entire world.

There are many examples of Aliyev’s misdeeds. Here are some of them:

During the 2020 war, Azeri soldiers committed barbaric acts that violate the international law, such as: beheading captured Armenian soldiers and civilians, mutilating their bodies, torturing them, trying the captives in court and sentencing them to lengthy jail terms.

In violation of international conventions, Azerbaijan used banned cluster and phosphorous bombs to kill Armenian soldiers during the 2020 war.

Azerbaijan systematically destroyed and defaced hundreds of Armenian cultural monuments and desecrated dozens of Armenian churches in Artsakh in violation of the Hague Convention on “the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.”

Azerbaijan continues to violate the ceasefire agreement signed by Pashinyan, Aliyev and Putin at the end of the 2020 war. Here are some examples: Not releasing many of the Armenian Prisoners of War, shooting at civilians in Artsakh, occupying parts of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, taking new Armenian hostages, and threatening Armenia and Artsakh with further attacks if they do not comply with Azerbaijan’s wishes.

Aliyev has dehumanized and demonized Armenians by describing them with vile adjectives, such as “leeches” and “wild animals.” In 2005, during the visit of a German delegation, the Mayor of Baku, Hajibala Abutalybov, shamelessly told them: “Our goal is the complete elimination of Armenians. You, Nazis, already eliminated the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, right? You should be able to understand us.”

Aliyev dispatched dozens of fake eco-activists to block the Lachin Corridor during the last six months, depriving 120,000 Artsakhtsis of food and medicines. These so-called eco-activists were more like eco-terrorists. Azerbaijan then placed a checkpoint at the Lachin Corridor further violating the 2020 agreement.

In addition, Azerbaijan periodically cuts off the Internet and electricity of the Artsakh population, keeping them isolated, in the dark and without heat in freezing temperatures.

Instead of a simple transit road, Azerbaijan repeatedly demands a corridor to cross from eastern Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan, which implies Azeri sovereignty over Armenia’s territory, in violation of 2020 agreement. By insisting on the Corridor, Aliyev is actually delaying Azerbaijan’s access to Nakhichevan through Armenia.

Aliyev declares that all of the territory of the Republic of Armenia is ‘Western Azerbaijan.’ This is sheer nonsense. Whereas Artsakh and Armenia are thousands of years old, Azerbaijan did not exist until a century ago.

Aliyev made the ridiculous pledge that Artsakhtsis will live under Azerbaijani rule just like all of its other citizens who are also repressed. Artsakhtsis remember well their barbaric mistreatment by Azerbaijan. Blockading them now shows how much worse they will be treated in the future.

Aliyev repeatedly urges Armenia to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. Any treaty signed by Azerbaijan is a meaningless piece of paper as we see from Aliyev’s violations of the 2020 agreement.

To make matters worse, State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller welcomed Aliyev’s outrageous statement that he will give amnesty to all Artsakh officials who resign. Instead, Miller should have condemned Aliyev’s unacceptable threats to invade Armenia and Artsakh.

Aliyev dismissed the demands of scores of world leaders and international organizations as well as the UN Security Council, the World Court and European Court of Human Rights to release the Armenian POWs and unblock the Lachin Corridor.

After the 2020 war, Azerbaijan established a racist Military Trophies Park in Baku, displaying wax models of Armenian soldiers with hooked noses and distorted faces. After complaints and condemnations by the international community, the exhibit was closed down.

In February 2004, an Azeri soldier, Ramil Safarov, used an axe to chop the head of a sleeping Armenian soldier in Hungary during a NATO program. In return for Azerbaijan loaning Hungary several billion dollars, Safarov was released prematurely with the understanding that he will serve the rest of his life sentence in a Baku jail. However, Aliyev welcomed Safarov as a national hero, pardoned him, promoted him to the rank of major, and gave him a free apartment and eight years of back pay. This is Azerbaijan’s compensation to Safarov for committing a cold blooded murder.

As a result of all these war crimes, Aliyev has destroyed his and Azerbaijan’s reputation around the world. He should be arrested and tried by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal.

Despite Aliyev’s reprehensible actions, world powers keep closing their eyes ignoring his many crimes, blinded by Azerbaijan’s oil and gas.

Pres. Ilham Aliyev held an international conference titled, “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation,” on April 29, 2022 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with 40 participants from 23 countries. The conference lasted over three hours, with a short introductory speech by Pres. Aliyev, followed by lengthy replies to a dozen questions from the fawning foreign guests.

The welcoming remarks were made by Hafiz Pashayev, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and Rector of the ADA University, which hosted the conference. He said that the conference was “dedicated to the Great Victory and liberation of Azerbaijani lands.” The day before the conference, the participants were taken on a tour of Fizuli and Shushi. Pashayev said: “our guests were also able to see some parts of the barbarian destruction which have been left after the Armenian occupation.”

Aliyev stated in his remarks that after “capitulating” in the 2020 war, Armenia recently accepted the “five basic principles for peace that Azerbaijan put forward.” He said that Azerbaijan lost the opportunity for peace “for thirty years because of separatism, and because of Armenian aggression…. Personally, I will never forget the atrocities and barbarism.”

Aliyev urged Armenians to “put an end to their territorial claims from Azerbaijan and Turkey…. It is important that the Armenian government and the country’s political spectrum fully understand this and stop trying to take revenge once and for all…. It is unproductive, because it will be more painful for Armenia than before…. It is absolutely irrational to put territorial claims to Turkey, which is one of the leading economies and one of the very few leading armies in the world.” Armenians must “put down all illusions.”

Aliyev even dared to warn Armenians to “put down all attempts to rebuild the army, become stronger, to have five million population which they announced as their state program, and then to take back their territories. That would be the end of their statehood officially.”

Aliyev accused Armenia of destroying “Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage and renaming all our cities, including Aghdam and Shusha.”

Aliyev disclosed how Azerbaijan blocked the delivery of weapons to Armenia during the 2020 war: “We publicly said many times that arms during the 44-day war regularly — they have several a day cargo planes carrying weapons from Russia to Armenia. We traced all the routes from Rostov and Mozdok. We asked our Georgian friends to block the airspace, and they did. Also, we asked our Georgian friends to block the land route from Russia to Georgia to transport weapons to Armenia, and they did it also, and we are grateful. We sent letters to all Caspian littoral states not to allow Russian cargo planes carrying weapons to Armenia. We sent [letters] to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. But unfortunately, these planes were using the territory of these countries entering Armenia.”

Aliyev also ridiculed Armenia and the Diaspora for thinking “that the whole world owes them everything, and someone will come and defend them, someone will come and fight for them, someone will come and give them money and everything, and they will sit and exploit their questionable and doubtful so-called tragedy.”

Pres. Aliyev accused Armenians of planting mines right before evacuating the territories they had lost to Azerbaijan in the war, after Armenia “signed the act of capitulation” on Nov. 10, 2020: “We gave them 10-20 days to leave the territories they had to leave based on the agreement signed on November 10. But, they used it to plant mines, burn houses they did not build but settled in, cut trees, and [cause] other ecological disasters.” He said that during that same period, Armenians “destroyed 30 hydroelectric power plants.”

Aliyev falsely claimed that Azerbaijan is a tolerant, multicultural country. He cited as an example the existence of an Armenian Church in the center of Baku. “There are five thousand Armenian books” in the Church, he said, hiding the fact that the Church no longer functions as a house of worship, but a library.

Aliyev assured his guests that “Armenians who live in Karabagh, we consider them our citizens. We hope that they will also soon understand that living as citizens of Azerbaijan, they will have all rights, and their security will be protected. Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, is a multi-ethnic country. All ethnic groups who live here, including Armenians, live in peace and dignity. We have an Armenian minority and they never had any issue in that respect.” Aliyev is hoping that everyone forgot about the repeated massacres of thousands of Armenians in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev claimed that Azerbaijan “is already getting some messages from Armenians in Karabagh — very positive messages. We already started some preliminary contacts on different levels. Don’t want to go into much details, but it already started, and this once again demonstrates our intention. They can be part of the rapid economic development, they can feel themselves much more safe, secure and comfortable within the unified Azerbaijani state, but they need to put down their separatist trends and separatist aspirations.”

Regarding the upcoming negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan to delimit and demarcate their mutual border, Aliyev claimed that there are maps that show Yerevan and Zangezur were “part of Azerbaijan.”

During his remarks, Aliyev also antagonized Russia when responding to a question about Ukraine. “We support the territorial integrity of Ukraine…. The most important [thing] is never agree to the occupation,” he said.

Finally, taking a dig at Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Aliyev recalled him saying, “‘Karabagh is Armenia.’ Now what [do] they say? Now they say that ‘Karabagh is Azerbaijan.’ And who says that? The same people who said ‘Karabagh is Armenia’ in 2019.”