PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR CLAIMS NAKHCHIVAN POLICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 000069 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, DRL/AE, DRL/IRF, G/TIP E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2020 TAGS: KISL PGOV PHUM PREL KTIP AJ IR SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR CLAIMS NAKHCHIVAN POLICE CRACKDOWN IN RESPONSE TO IRANIAN RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM REF: A. BAKU 49 ¶B. BAKU 32 ¶C. BAKU 27 ¶D. 09 BAKU 863 Classified By: Charge Donald Lu, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On January 29, Senior Presidential Advisor for Law Enforcement Fuad Alesgarov told the Charge that "I don't know if there were Interior Ministry abuses in Bananyar village (of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic),but if there were, we had to do it to fight religious extremism." He continued that he had had access to Nakhchivan Interior Ministry reports on the issue and that the events there (reftels A-C) were instigated by two Iranian mullahs. ¶2. (C) The Charge explained USG concerns about the reported human rights abuses and the harassment of U.S. and Norwegian diplomats as they tried to investigate the incident. He said that be blamed "100 percent" the harassment of the diplomats on the failure of the local Foreign Ministry representative who did not coordinate well with the Nakhchivan authorities. He added that the two Iranian mullahs were part of an intentional policy of Iran to spread radical Islam in Azerbaijan. In response, the head of the Muslim faith in Azerbaijan, Allah Shukur Pashazade, had issued a decision banning self-flagellation during the observance of Ashura. Instead, Azerbaijani Muslims were encouraged to give blood as a sign of their piety. According to Alesgarov, many residents of Bananyar village defied this order and beat themselves on December 28. This resulted in their arrest by police. He said that the one young man who set himself on fire to protest the arrests had a history of schizophrenia, as did several members of his family. ¶3. (C) The Charge emphasized that it is the desire of the Embassy to have a dialogue with the Presidential Apparat on suspected human rights abuses in Nakhchivan because the Embassy understood that constitutionally only the President's office has the authority to intervene in the affairs of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Alesgarov said that he understood, but did not offer a substantive response to this request. Positive Signals on TIP Cooperation -------------- ¶4. (C) The Charge detailed the suspected trafficking-in-persons case (reftel D) in which Bosnian Serbs had been brought to Azerbaijan and deprived of their passports and not paid for five months. Alesgarov took careful notes, but did not seem to be unaware of the case. The Charge stressed that both the Bosnian and Serb Governments were preparing criminal charges and Interpol notices. He asked that the Azerbaijani side cooperate fully with the investigation. Alesgarov said that he would communicate to the Interior Ministry the importance of cooperating with Serbia, Bosnia and the OSCE on this matter. ¶5. (C) Comment: The Presidential advisor's comments about the roots of the Bananyar incident directly contradict the story we heard from local NGOs and journalists, who claimed that the incident was a result of petty commercial conflict and possibly involved targeting opposition party members. It may be that the government has now sought to paint this as an issue of religious extremism in order to elicit sympathy from the West. It is a positive sign that they are willing to being a dialogue on the incident. OSCE Ambassador Cankorel traveled to Bananyar village last week and will debrief embassies tomorrow, February 3. LU