AZERBAIJANI NGO LEADER PLANS DEMOCRACY COUNCIL TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 000299 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM AJ SUBJECT: AZERBAIJANI NGO LEADER PLANS DEMOCRACY COUNCIL TO WORK WITH GOVERNMENT/CIVIL SOCIETY REF: BAKU 60 Classified By: Ambassador Anne E. Derse for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Prominent NGO leader and human rights activist Arzu Abdullayeva told Poloff March 6 that she has organized a new Democracy Council for the purpose of engaging the GOAJ in a constructive dialogue on democracy and human rights (reftel). Following up on her comments to the Ambassador in December, Abdullayeva reported that the new council would seek to build on the success of Abdullayeva's existing Karabakh Council which successfully brings together civil society representatives to advance Track II diplomacy in connection with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabkh conflict. The Democracy Council will be comprised of a cross section of moderate civil society leaders, respected for their neutrality, along with open-minded government officials and pro-government civil society leaders. Abdullayeva has worked behind the scenes to cultivate positive relations with some GOAJ officials and is one of the only NGO leaders with credibility on all sides. Abdullayeva confided that she received tentative, private support for this initiative from the President's Legal Advisor Fuad Aleskerov and from Samad Seyidov, a respected ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party Member of Parliament. ¶2. (C) Abdullayeva subsequently provided a list of the 40-person combined membership of both the Karabakh and Democracy Councils; the membership partly overlaps. (We will forward a complete list to EUR/CARC). A partial list of the Democracy Council's members, all of whom have agreed to participate, includes Ayna/Zerkalo editor-in-chief Elchin Shikhli, Echo editor-in-chief Rauf Talishinsky, research scholar Leyla Aliyeva, political scientist Rasim Musabeyov, Turan's news service CEO Mehman Aliyev, human rights activist Novella Jafaroglu, and political commentator Eldar Namazov. Abdullayeva said that USG support for Council's work was essential to its credibility with the Government. Poloff affirmed the Ambassador's strong support for the initiative and told her that we viewed the Democracy Council as reinforcing and complementing the USG's intensified democracy dialogue with Azerbaijan. The Ambassador will meet with the Council once it is up and running in April 2007. ¶3. (C) Comment: The Council, which Abdullayeva's expects to include government, civil society and media representatives, could serve as a bridge and facilitator between the GOAJ and the sometimes less than unified NGO community if it develops successfully. We will give the effort maximum support here and urge A/S Lowenkron to secure senior GOAJ support for the effort in the March 22 democracy dialogue. DERSE