GOAJ: THE NEXT GENERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000722 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM PREL PINR AJ SUBJECT: GOAJ: THE NEXT GENERATION Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Robert Garverick, Reasons 1 .4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Summary: Ireli Public Union, formerly the Ireli Youth Movement, is a pro-government NGO focused on "developing Azerbaijani youth." In a September 2 meeting, Ireli's leadership explained the various projects the group is conducting, including summer camps, IT training, and a small grants competition. Ireli Chairman Jeyhun Osmanli hopes in ten years Azerbaijan will be a developed country, but this will only happen if the "right people are in place." Osmanli also stated that Ireli is an important networking tool for its members, many of whom are now in important government and business positions. Ireli members are well positioned to be the next generation of Azerbaijani leaders, and therefore the Embassy will continue to engage the group and follow their activities. End Summary. Who are the pro-government youth? -------------- ¶2. (C) On September 2 POLOFF met with the leadership of the "Ireli" (Forward) Public Union in the group's lavish headquarters in the historic center of Baku. This group was founded in 2005 as a youth movement that openly supported the Aliyev administration. In December 2008 Ireli changed itself to a "public union" in order to register legally as an NGO. The Ministry of Justice gave them registration three months later, a remarkably swift time for registration. The group claims it now has 8,000 members, more than half of whom are female. Its website (www.ireli.az) is professionally designed, with impressive graphics, YouTube videos, and radio broadcasts. The organization has a Facebook group with over 1,400 members, more than twice as many as the Ol Youth Movement (jailed youth blogger Adnan Hajizade's group) has. ¶3. (C) Chairman Jeyhun Osmanli, who did most of the talking during the meeting, explained that the organization cares more about quality, rather than quantity, of members. Osmanli further explained that one of the main functions of the organization is networking, and many of its members are now in good positions within the GOAJ and business, and therefore can help each other. Many of the leaders of the group have studied abroad either in the United States or Europe, and all spoke excellent English. Osmanli himself has not studied in the U.S., but he spent three years working for �00A;the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he worked largely in English. According to Osmanli, the other stated purpose of the group is the "development of youth" but Osmanli gave no specifics as to what that means. What activities do pro-government youth do? -------------- ¶4. (C) Osmanli explained a number of the projects that Ireli is currently conducting. Over the summer, the group put together 26 week-long camps in the regions of Azerbaijan for young people. In total 3,000 youth participated in these camps with themes from archeology to photography to international relations. The group is also conducting a 2 year, 1 million USD project to train 50,000 people throughout the country on how to use the internet. They have a bus equipped with laptop computers and wireless internet, set up in part with donations from Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, which they are taking from region to region to train young people on how to find information on the internet. All trainers on this project are Ireli members. In another project, Ireli is planning to train students at all journalism faculties in Azerbaijan and place them into selected internships in media outlets. In all these projects, Osmanli stated that "it is important to have the right partners." Osmanli also explained they have launched a new campaign where young people can submit their "project initiatives" and Ireli will help "develop and fund them." Election Plans -------------- ¶5. (C) Ramiz Mammadli is Ireli's project manager for the year-end municipal elections. Mammadli said Ireli plans to motivate and train young people to run for municipal councils, aiming to have 5,000 candidates under age 35 running in the elections, as currently only 4% of municipal BAKU 00000722 002 OF 002 leaders are young. While Mammadli stated that as an NGO they cannot provide funding to candidates, they plan to help by providing training as well as posters and leaflets with the phrase "this poster provided by Ireli" on the bottom. Mammadli said the group does not plan any voter education or get out the vote campaigning as part of this project. What do pro-government youth want for Azerbaijan? -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Osmanli, in response to poloff's question regarding what Azerbaijan should look like ten years from now, replied that Azerbaijan has had great success over the past ten years. He stated that Azerbaijan ten years ago was on the level of African countries but now it is developing. In ten years, Osmanli hopes Azerbaijan will be a developed country, not just economically but culturally as well. In order to reach this goal, Osmanli says it is important to have proper people in the right places. He quickly added that Azerbaijan has proper people in place now, but that sometimes some people are not working in the right direction. The independence of the state is the most important thing, Osmanli stated. And while Ireli is not against anybody, they do not agree with demagoguery and people who just want to publicize themselves. "The future of Azerbaijan will look like us," Osmali stated. COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) The contrast between this meeting and meetings with other Azerbaijani youth groups such as Dalga, AN Network, and Ol is striking. The words democracy, human rights, and freedom were never mentioned during the more than hour long discussion. Instead, "development" seems to be the buzz word for these young people. This clearly GOAJ-supported group has its insidious side, with clear parallels to pro-Russian government youth groups in Moscow, like Nashi, Young Russia and the Youth Guard, although without the violent tendencies. The group-led archeological expeditions sound eerily reinvented from Soviet times. Nonetheless, Osmanli and his Ireli members are as, if not more, likely to be the future leaders of Azerbaijan as jailed bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, and therefore the Embassy will continue to engage the group and follow their activities. In some respects, youth leaders like these, despite their pro-government leanings, may turn out to be important defenders of NGOs and unfettered access to the internet. LU