AZERBAIJAN: A/S GORDON MEETS CIVIL SOCIETY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000494 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM AM AJ SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: A/S GORDON MEETS CIVIL SOCIETY REF: BAKU 477 Classified By: Ambassador Anne E. Derse for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Summary: On June 11 EUR Assistant Secretary Philip Gordon met with five prominent members of Azerbaijan's civil society. The group explained that civil society has increasingly less freedom to act within Azerbaijan, and that newly proposed changes to the law on NGOs would be a death knell for their activities. While the group felt that strengthening Azerbaijan's civil society was largely a task for the Azerbaijani people, they asked the USG to prevent President Aliyev from looking like a respected, democratic leader in international fora. They believe Aliyev has no choice but to integrate with the West, and any pro-Russian moves he makes are simply a game to gain more leverage from the West to control opposing views within Azerbaijan's population. The group also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stating Russia had no interest in a solving the conflict. End Summary. ¶2. (C) On June 11 Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon met with a diverse group of members of Azerbaijan's civil society. A/S Gordon asked the group to explain the current situation facing Azerbaijan's civil society, and how the USG can help. Situation for Civil Society Worsening -------------- ¶3. (C) Ilgar Mammadov, a political commentator (and increasingly, an opposition activist),explained that the changes proposed the previous day in the Milli Majlis (parliament) on the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) would kill Azerbaijan's civil society (reftel). He believes the GOAJ has taken a number of steps over the past five years to weaken civil society, but that this law would be the final step in eliminating independent thinking in the country. He stated that the country was freer ten years ago, with more independent media and a more developed political party system. Since then, President Ilham Aliyev has followed a Russian model of governance. He believes the GOAJ's next step will be to regulate the internet. While Mammadov appreciated USG support, he stated that the weakness of civil society was an Azerbaijani problem, and Azerbaijan needed to solve it. ¶4. (C) Arzu Abdullayeva of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly agreed that the proposed changes to the law on NGOs would severely restrict independent civil society. In particular, she explained that a new restriction on receiving foreign funding was an attempt to put all NGOs under the control of the newly created State Council and Fund for NGOs, which she said gives grants to NGOs based on nepotism. She believes the reason for these changes is a lack of democratic culture within the GOAJ. ¶5. (C) Rena Safaralieva of Transparency International Azerbaijan agreed that the situation for civil society had gotten markedly worse over the previous six months. She believes the West has closed its eyes to this because of "fear of Russia." The GOAJ cannot make a real choice to follow Russia, because Russia would "crush" Azerbaijan. Safaralieva stated that the level of corruption is increasing in Azerbaijan, as evidenced by a new report from the IFC due to be released in late June. She also stated that businesses are feeling increased pressure from the GOAJ because the GOAJ needs more financial resources due the global economic crisis. She stated that the GOAJ does not realize that there are frustrated people in every country, and these people need a legitimate outlet for these frustrations. ¶6. (C) Vugar Salamli of Ol! Youth Movement stated that his organization is unregistered, and operates largely through use of its blogs, youtube, and facebook. About 500 people a day now read the organization's website. Therefore Salamli stated he was worried about both the new law on NGOs and possible future regulation of the internet. The new NGO law would prevent his organization from conducting its activities without registration, which is difficult to get, and any new law on the internet, would prevent them from keeping in touch with their members. He said many independent thinking young people today are considering leaving Azerbaijan, and the only BAKU 00000494 002 OF 002 solution is further democratization. Increase in Religious Observance -------------- ¶7. (C) Nariman Gasimoglu of the Azerbaijan Center for Religion and Democracy stated that the majority of people in Azerbaijan are secular. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in attendance at mosques. The GOAJ is monitoring this closely. In general Gasimoglu believes Azerbaijan continues its historic achievement of maintaining religious tolerance, but that extremist influences are entering the country from abroad (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan). He believes the GOAJ needs training in how to fight extremism without impinging on religious freedom. What can the USG do? -------------- ¶8. (C) Mammadov stated that President Aliyev cannot choose to be entirely allied with Russia, as Russia would not solve the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict and would "crush" Azerbaijan. Therefore he believes President Aliyev is playing a game with the West. He asked the USG not to allow Aliyev to use routine international events to raise his profile with the Azerbaijani people, and make him look like an accepted, civilized leader. Nagorno-Karabakh -------------- ¶9. (C) Abdullayeva pointed out that the one area where civil society has had some success working with the GOAJ was on the NK conflict. She explained that she is part of a civil society group that works with counterparts on the Armenian side to find a solution. She believes that finding a solution between peoples on a future status for NK is much easier than at the official level. She has proposed some of the ideas that this civil society group has envisioned to the GOAJ. The GOAJ has largely adopted these proposals, however, on the surface without implementing them in a meaningful way. For instance, Abdullayeva said it was her group's idea to organize the Azerbaijani community from NK into a community and elect a leader who could participate in the negotiations. The GOAJ has formed this community, but did not hold a real election for its leader, and therefore Abdullayeva feels the new Karabakh community organization is not worthwhile. ¶10. (C) Abdullayeva and Mammadov both stated that the negotiations through the Minsk Group were at a critical point, and no one knew whether there would be war or peace. Both also agreed that while Russia was now being more active on this issue, it was not really interested in solving the conflict. Mammadov believes that Russia has an irrational arrogance towards the South Caucasus. Safaralieva agreed, stating that Russia's arrogance and aggression toward the rest of the world was getting worse. Abdullayeva ended the meeting by saying that now was the time for the peace process to begin, and if it did not happen now, there would not be another opportunity for 10-15 years. COMMENT -------------- ¶11. (C) This meeting attempted to present an overview of Azerbaijan's domestic political situation from a non-governmental point of view. In this sense, the discussion of the new law on NGOs hit directly at the major issues affecting Azerbaijani civil society - increasing interference by the GOAJ and lack of space, physical or virtual, to discuss and debate ideas. In addition, despite this and other disturbing developments on the internal front, the group constantly steered the conversation away from domestic politics and toward larger international strategic issues, especially the NK conflict. While not the intention behind the meeting, this does underscore the fact that NK continues to be issue number one not only for the GOAJ, but also for the Azerbaijani people. END COMMENT. ¶12. (U) Assistant Secretary Gordon has cleared this cable. DERSE