Bogus Azeri "civil society group" finds its way to Washington, hires US lobby firm

Early in May, a Washington-based lobby firm called Greenberg Traurig LLP signed a contact with a Baku-based "human rights group" offering its lobbying service to provide "U.S. government relations counsel."

The Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan, a pro-government group known as its bogus advocacy on behalf of Azeri government's "caviar diplomacy" in Europe, will pay $25,000 per month to Greenberg Traurig with the three-month contract in Washington, according to Justice Department's records.

Payment will be made by Renaissance Associates – another Baku-based pro-government group, – on ACSDA's behalf, TURAN's Washington correspondent was informed.

The pact was signed between ACSDA's chairman Elkhan Siraj Suleymanov, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament, and Greenberg Traurig’s Elana Broitman, former Capitol Hill advisor. Broitman previously served in the Clinton administration as Senior Rule of Law Advisor to the USAID.

In her letter to Suleymanov on April 20, Broitman highlighted the company's billing policy adding that the rates of their lawyers and paralegals "are subject to change." "Any new rates would be implemented immediately after they are adopted and would apply to services rendered after the effective date thereof."

The "nature" of the business between two companies is described in the agreement as following: "Advice and counsel related to pending legislation, as well as educating the government and other opinion leaders regarding the same effective April 26,2016."

Greenberg Traurig officials had no immediate comment when contacted about this report.

Suleymanov, who is reportedly close to President Ilham Aliyev, is well  known in Azerbaijan for his exceptional role in an international strategy that’s been described as ‘caviar diplomacy’ – that is, lavish gifts, trips, and other benefits distributed to international policymakers.

According to a 2012 report of "European Stability Initiative," caviar, silk carpets, as well as cash were presented to a number of members of Azerbaijan’s friends in PACE, when they had visited Baku.

Being a leader of the Azerbaijani delegation to Euronest, an assembly that created by the European Parliament in 2009, Suleymanov and his group havelong been trying to find their ways to Washington too.

In 2007, ACSDA reportedly sent a special delegation to the US Capital to launch a “strategy meeting” at National Press Club at which they were seeking to “share and learn about advocacy within the US system,” a former lobbyist who closely follow Azerbaijan,told TURAN’s correspondent, by quoting then Azeri delegation leader Vali  Alibayov as saying.

“That trip was organized by Bob Lawrence & Associates, another lobby group which until recently was Azerbaijani Embassy's contractor,” the source told TURAN.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan has long been widely criticized for its bizarre lobbying efforts in the West while cracking down against independent voices at home.

The country in recent years has inked a number of image-building pacts with DC-based lobby groups such as, most notably, Podesta Group, which as critics put it, only highlights the contrast between reality and fiction about Azerbaijan.

A.Raufoglu

Washington, DC