COORDINATING OUR DEMOCRACY MESSAGE IN AZERBAIJAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 001230 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM PHUM AJ SUBJECT: COORDINATING OUR DEMOCRACY MESSAGE IN AZERBAIJAN REF: A. BAKU 758 ¶B. BAKU 953 ¶C. BAKU 783 ¶D. BAKU 689 Classified By: Ambassador Anne E. Derse per 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) Summary: On October 5, the Ambassador convened a group of like-minded ambassadors to discuss coordination of our democracy strategies in the run-up to Azerbaijan's 2008 presidential election. The EU will issue its first progress report on Azerbaijan's EU Action Plan in April 2008, and the UK Ambassador stressed that this could serve as a positive incentive. The Ambassadors agreed to seek guidance from their capitals on a joint political approach in the run-up to the 2008 election, focused on specific steps the international community recommends Azerbaijan take on media freedom, freedom of assembly, electoral reform, and civil society. They also agreed to pursue the international community's dialogue on media issues with Presidential Political Advisor Ali Hasanov and to solicit the engagement of a broader group of non-Western democracies and new EU member states in their future discussions. The OSCE separately plans to present its ideas on election-related issues to Presidential Chief of Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev, an initiative Ambassador Derse suggested should be coordinated with key like-minded member states. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) On October 5, the Ambassador hosted a working lunch with Ambassadors from like-minded diplomatic missions to discuss coordination of our democracy strategies in the run-up to Azerbaijan's October 2008 presidential election. Ambassadors from the OSCE, Council of Europe, France (representing the Portuguese EU Presidency),Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway and the UK were present; Ambassadors from UNDP, Germany, Poland and Turkey were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts but requested that they be included in future discussions. Several Ambassadors suggested that the group be widened to include non-European democracies, such as India, Japan and South Korea, as well as new EU members Bulgaria and Romania. ¶3. (C) The EU Ambassadors welcomed the U.S. initiative to coordinate our strategies on democracy and human rights issues. The Latvian Ambassador noted that previous EU attempts to raise democracy and human rights issues with the GOAJ had not been successful. Under the German EU Presidency, for example, the EU Ambassadors had delivered a strong demarche on press freedom in June, yet the GOAJ had not yet provided any response to their concerns. The UK Ambassador noted her concern that Azerbaijan's growing confidence, fueled by oil wealth, may be behind its lack of receptivity to the EU's human rights concerns. As Foreign Minister Mammadyarov recently told the UK Ambassador, "My President said that 'we need to become stronger, then they will respect us.'" She also noted that the GOAJ had ignored the international community's separate demarche on media issues, made to Presidential Chief of Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev in June (ref a). The OSCE Ambassador said that, in order to succeed, it is critical that the international community present its human rights and democracy concerns in a collaborative, rather than confrontational way, a point that all of the Ambassadors supported. The Ambassadors also agreed that this message should be delivered in private, rather than public channels, to be most effective. ¶4. (C) Several of the Ambassadors agreed that the GOAJ increasingly seemed to believe that it was not getting a fair shake on its democracy and human rights record (refs b-d). The UK Ambassador noted that, when the Duke of York raised human rights concerns during his October 1 visit to Baku, President Aliyev told him that "Even if I stood on my head, the West wouldn't declare our elections free and fair," a point he has made to USG interlocutors. The Norwegian Ambassador added that Foreign Minister Mammadyarov had recently told the Norwegian Foreign Minister that the Council of Europe simply doesn't understand Azerbaijan. ¶5. (C) The EU Ambassadors noted that Azerbaijan's EU Action Plan could serve as an effective tool for addressing Azerbaijan's human rights situation. An EC delegation led by DG RELEX's Gunnar Weigand was recently in Azerbaijan to prepare for the upcoming October 16 Cooperation Council meeting, in which Solana will meet Azerbaijani FM Mammadyarov. The Commission will issue its first-ever progress report on Azerbaijan's EU Action Plan in April 2008, and it is already clear that Azerbaijan's report will be worse than Armenia's. (All three South Caucasus countries signed EU Action Plans in November 2006.) The Greek Ambassador, however, questioned the utility of the Action Plan in addressing Azerbaijan's human rights situation, questioning whether the EU would act with any real consequences -- i.e., suspension -- for Azerbaijan's poor performance. Agreeing that the EU would not choose to suspend Azerbaijan's action plan, the UK Ambassador argued that the action plan was nevertheless a positive incentive, meant to move the EU-Azerbaijan relationship forward. The Israeli Ambassador questioned whether the GOAJ took the EU Action Plan seriously, recounting how the GOAJ had declined Israel's offer to provide technical assistance as Azerbaijan negotiated its EU Action Plan, telling him that the plan was "not that important." ¶6. (C) The ambassadors agreed that the international community should engage Azerbaijan on democracy and human rights issues with a unified voice to be most effective. The ambassadors also agreed that the upcoming 2008 presidential election presented a good opportunity to work with the GOAJ to encourage "the freest and fairest elections in Azerbaijan's history," a goal specified in the Council of Europe's March 27, 2005 resolution on Azerbaijan's implementation of its COE commitments. Building on democracy and governance assistance coordination meetings chaired recently by the OSCE, the ambassadors agreed that the key areas to be addressed at the political level in the run-up to the election were: media freedom, freedom of assembly, electoral reform, and civil society. The ambassadors agreed to consult their capitals on particular points that should be made in the run-up to the election. They agreed that the international community should pursue its dialogue on media issues with Presidential Political Advisor Ali Hasanov, led by the OSCE and the COE (reftel). They also agreed to include a broader group of non-Western democracies and new EU member states in their future discussions, and the Israeli Ambassador offered to chair the next meeting of this broader group after the OSCE-led follow-up discussion with Hasanov. Ambassador Derse added that the international community should look for opportunities to raise these issues in other venues, such as high-level visits. ¶7. (C) The OSCE Ambassador noted that, in addition to this broader international effort on democracy and human rights issues, he was working on a separate approach to the GOAJ to lay out the OSCE Office in Baku's views on the steps needed to achieve a free and fair election. The OSCE Ambassador stressed that this was an initiative of the Baku Office and did not require OSCE Member States' approval. (The OSCE Ambassador has repeatedly expressed his private concerns that the OSCE not be seen by the Russians as overstepping its mandate in Baku, as well as his concern that Russia not quash OSCE work on "human dimension" issues here.) Ambassador Derse noted that it would be useful for the OSCE Office in Baku to coordinate its message with key like-minded member states, to ensure that the GOAJ received a clear message about the 2008 election. ¶8. (C) Comment: All of the ambassadors agreed that their countries' strategic interests in Azerbaijan depend on the long-term stability that only democratic reform can bring. The ambassadors also agreed that the upcoming 2008 presidential election presents an opportunity to work together for constructive change, but noted that Azerbaijan's increasing confidence could make it more difficult to make progress in some of the more contentious areas. In our view, the GOAJ's increasing confidence and, in some cases, increasing resistance to external policy prescriptives, make it even more essential that the international community coordinate its diplomatic efforts and speak with a unified voice. We have shared our ideas for a joint approach on the 2008 elections via email with the Department, and look forward to the Department's guidance. DERSE