Today.Az » Politics » Germany carries out dirty anti-Azerbaijan campaign
21 April 2012 [14:50] - Today.Az
Nowadays, Germany carries out a dirty anti-Azerbaijan campaign at the state level. The country’s officials, government agencies, media, NGOs - in a nutshell, all authorities have chosen Azerbaijan as a target.
A brilliant victory of Azerbaijani duo Eldar and Nigar at the Eurovision 2011 held in Duesseldorf become a great joy that filled the hearts of millions of Azerbaijanis. This victory has created the possibility of recognition of Azerbaijan’s modern image in the world, promotion of the country’s realities in the international community, as well as promotion of its rich culture, customs and traditions, and the history of the Azerbaijani people. Surely, at that time no one thought that unfriends will activate their forces at such an extent and there will be launched a large-scale aggressive campaign against our country, and that the Eurovision Song Contest will even be politicized.
And, the relay in the ‘information war’ against Azerbaijan was transferred to Germany. When analyzing the ‘information war’ being carried out agonist Azerbaijan, one can see that the main actors of this process are certain circles in the West that have political and economic interests in Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Armenian lobby, Islamophobes and radical opposition. According to some politicians and analysts, a strong similarity is observed in the timing of activities of the radical opposition and foreign circles conducting an anti-Azerbaijan propaganda.
Indeed, the beginning of a large-scale campaign of denigration against Azerbaijan in the British media following the Eurovision victory and then changeover to Germany and Azerbaijani opposition’s full support to this insidious process is evidence to the existence of serious grounds for these assertions.
German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Herbert Quelle tried to explain the peculiar form of ‘crusade’ of the German media against Azerbaijan. In his article published in the Yeni Azerbaijan newspaper, the diplomat assures that following the victory in Düsseldorf, the German press was more interested in Azerbaijan and running across negative information along the positive information it began to exaggerate it. The German Federal Government is not able to put pressure on the independent and strong German media, or direct them, Quelle said.
Surely, the arguments of the diplomat defending his country’s interests are nothing more than an explanation of the problem within these interests. If Quelle approached the question through the prism of the collapse of major transcontinental energy projects, intensity of communication of the German authorities and other political circles with the Azerbaijani opposition, the active participation of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his deputy Michael Link in the process, relations between influential funds managed by leading political circles of this country and the Azerbaijani opposition, and finally, through the prism of the topics discussed at meetings with the opposition 'leaders', then he would observed a completely different picture, and his approach to the problem would not be unilateral.
The German funds acting as the organizers of this dirty campaign against Azerbaijan play a huge role here. Earlier, the spread of unreasonable, unobjective materials about Azerbaijan in the leading German media outlets such as ?pigel, ARD was linked with certain German circles’ interests related to Azerbaijan. But, soon the involvement of the leading German media outlets in this process, apparent activation of the funds such as Konrad Adenauer, Fridrix Nauman, Henrix Böll and Fridrix Ebert in Azerbaijan, meetings of the German officials and MPs with the leaders of the opposition parties strengthened suspicion of the existence of a hidden motive. The analyses revealed the facts proving that these suspicions are absolutely justified.
As is known, from South Caucasus countries, Georgia embarked on a path of the integration into NATO, Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization established by Russia. And Azerbaijan is the only country which joined neither blocks and pursues an independent policy. Some experts believe that certain Western circles that cannot perceive Azerbaijan’s independent policy are actively engaged in pressuring on Azerbaijan, and this task is now assigned to Germany.
Germany’ efforts to put pressure on Azerbaijan at the state level by using the Eurovision Song Contest and Europe’s standard means of pressure - democracy, human rights, etc., are explained by these factors. Therefore, experts believe increasing communication between German funds and the radical opposition is not accidental.
The Fridrix Nauman Fund is actively working on spreading position of the radical forces in the foreign media.
It’s not a secret that the German funds had serious relations with the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan and Musavat. The press has repeatedly published materials about the special role of the Fridrix Nauman Fund in the financing of these parties. The Azerbaijani representation of the fund is chaired by the head of the Eastern and Western Studies Centre, member of the Coordinating Council of the so-called "Public Chamber" , Arastun Orujlu. Michael Link, who was once chairman of the Germany-South Caucasus Parliamentary Group at the Bundestag, took an active participation and made speeches at all events held in Azerbaijan upon the Fridrix Nauman Fund. Sometimes even the press presented him as the fund’s expert.
Circles close to Ali Karimli report that the opposition camp and especially the PFPA received the news of Link’s appointment as Deputy Foreign Minister in January 2012 with great enthusiasm. Naming Link ‘our friend’, Karimli said that his appointment to this position is no accident. Speaking about this, Karimli most likely meant that the Fridrix Nauman Fund has close ties with the Free Democrats Party in Germany. Link is one of the activists of this party. Thus, Link’s appointment, on one hand, opens the funds’ money bags for the PFPA and on other hand creates conditions for support to the PFPA by the German government and the Party of Free Democrats.
The Fridrix Nauman Fund’s position towards Azerbaijan became pretty interesting in the subsequent period. Recently the Georgian media reported that in March 2012 Tbilisi hosted discussions over human rights, freedom of speech and press in Azerbaijan. Speaking at the event, Head of the Fund’s South Caucasus Project Yasemin Pamuk sharply criticized Azerbaijan and informed about projects that the Fund seeks to implement. The project entitled "Support Free Future" stipulates holding of a campaign related to ‘political prisoners’ and human rights in Azerbaijan, preparation and demonstration of a special video, holding of rallies in various European countries on the eve of the Eurovision 2012.
Today, the Fridrix Nauman Fund is actively working on dissemination of the Azerbaijani radical forces’ position in the foreign media. It is no coincidence that just Fridrix Nauman Fund sponsors the German media representatives’ visits to Azerbaijan, and their meetings with the leaders of the PFPA, Musavat, activists and NGOs that occupy a sharp anti-government position.
The Konrad Adenauer Fund is trying to compensate the difficulties that it faced in different countries with expansion of activities in Azerbaijan.
The Konrad Adenauer Fund, distinguished with the close ties with the chairman of the Union of Christian Democrats and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is trying to compensate the difficulties faced in recent years in different countries, with the expansion of activities in Azerbaijan. Note that, the Fund’s office in Cairo was a subject to police raid on December 29, 2011 and its activities were banned. Also, it was forced to suspend activities and close representation in the UAE on March 22, 2012
German Ambassador to Azerbaijan supports Ali Karimli
The Konrad Adenauer Fund’s representation has not passed official registration in Azerbaijan, but it not faced any restrictions in its activities in the country. Its representative in the country was a member of Liberty Radio and is close to Ali Karimli. Also, the Fund’s South Caucasus Representative Canan Atilgan is in constant contact with Ali Karimli and meets with him during each visit to Baku. Atilgan always invites Karimli to the events organized abroad to voice their problems in international organizations. It’s interesting that Ambassador Quelle supports Karimli by joining this process. Meeting in February this year with Quelle, Karimli told close circles that the ambassador assured him to spare no efforts so that European Union and Council of Europe put pressure on Azerbaijan.
The Fridrix Ebert Fund sponsors projects close to the PFPA organizations.
Although the German Fridrix Ebert Fund presents itself as a neutral organization, it provides financial assistance to the organizations that are close to the PFPA. Azerbaijani representative of the Fund Rashad Huseynli was once a PFPA member and was appointed as the board member of the Soros Fund with the support of Karimli and Turan news agency head Mehman Aliyev. This appointment was intended to gain a majority vote of the Board members at times when the Soros Fund issues grants to NGOs associated with the PFPA. And now, events on human rights and democracy are being organized in Azerbaijan upon the initiative and with financial support of the Fridrix Ebert Fund.
It should be noted that mainly representatives of the opposition, NGOs and the press opposed to the authorities are invited to join these activities. Thus, the analysis of the German Funds’ activities in Azerbaijan gives grounds to say that these structures play an active role in financing the opposition, forming a negative opinion about Azerbaijan in the international arena through various activities and campaigns. Given their closeness to the leading political circles of Germany, one can clearly see factors that underlie of the recent activization.
Germany’s officials are also among the supporters of this dirty campaign. But, the anti-Azerbaijan campaign backed by the German Government is not limited to those institutions. On March 15, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at a meeting with the opposition leaders held an exchange of views on the support to opposition by Germany when mulling the socio-political situation in Azerbaijan. Following this, the German Embassy and the relevant authorities have not voiced position towards the fair protests by NAP and Azerbaijani Parliament.
Commissioner of the German Government for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid Markus Loening (note that he is close to Fridrix Nauman Fund manager Wolfgang Gerhard) is one of the main organizers of the anti-Azerbaijani campaign. During his visit to Azerbaijan in August last year, Loening made harsh judgments and statements. At a meeting with the opposition representatives, he said: ‘Germany is always ready to help you to make changes in Azerbaijan’.
The Ombudsman, successively continuing this trend, publishes articles sharply criticizing Azerbaijan in the journal ‘?pigel’ and other media outlets of Germany. Today, Loening is an active participant in all activities conducted abroad over Azerbaijan. Writing letters to officials, politicians, journalists and musicians that want to visit Azerbaijan, he encourages them to join the campaign against Azerbaijan
Although, for a very long time, Germany’s representative in the Council of Europe Christopher Strasser seeks to realize his plans associated with the visit to Azerbaijan as CoE rapporteur on the ‘political prisoners’, he failed for the known objective reasons. Mr. Strasser does not want to understand that ‘political prisoner"’- is an abstract notion, it lacks any explanation in the international law.
On the other hand, why only in Azerbaijan, political motives are investigated in the case of persons sentenced for a particular crime? Were the rights of protesters killed and arrested during the elections in Armenia restored? In developed European countries, it is not so difficult to find a political motive in the criminal case against different people. It’s also interesting that, Strasser as a representative of the German Bundestag makes biased and prejudiced statements about Azerbaijan in the local press.
The Green party also joined the anti-Azerbaijan campaign.
Another interesting aspect in this process is that the Green Party, which is considered as a serious political force in Germany, also joined the anti-Azerbaijani campaign revitalized in recent times. During the summit held earlier this year, Deputy-Chairman of Parliamentary Friendship group for Relations with Southern Caucasus Viola von Cramon, who holds pro-Armenian position, mulled with Rasul Guliyev the possible support to the opposition by the Bundestag and the party.
Moreover, Cramon organized a meeting of Guliyev with representatives of other parties. Recently Cramon even voiced an intention to include the Eurovision issue into the agenda of the Bundestag. "I shall strive to appeal to the EU countries to boycott the Eurovision 2012,” she said. It is no accident that Germany’s Green party representative Volker Berg openly states in his interviews that Baku - the wrong place for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Also, the article published in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper reads that the German government in response to the request of the Green Party claims that allegedly 136 people were subjected to torture in Azerbaijan in 2011, three of whom died.
The German government responds to the official request based on the fictional reports of the structure titled ‘Azerbaijan Committee against Torture’ , which is named as a ‘credible source’, but not on the reports of the relevant structures of Azerbaijan and influential international organizations. This, at least, is lack of respect for the German-Azerbaijani relations.
All the cases mentiononed above once again prove that Germany holds a dirty anti-Azerbaijani campaign at the state level. The government officials, government agencies, media, NGOs - in a nutshell, all choosed Azerbaijan as a target.
We have valid reasons for which we responded to Ambassador Quelle’s article published in our newspaper so late. Because, the edition needed a time to reveal those facts, which he did not mention or did not want to. But, perhaps, some time will be needed to refute them.
Analytical Group of the Yeni Azerbaijan newspaper
|
|
