What brings top Obama advisors, Congress members to Baku?

When David Plouffe, a longtime top advisor of the US President Barack Obama surprisingly appeared in Azerbaijan in early 2009, a few days before the country was due to hold a controversial referendum to lift a two-term limit on the presidentcy theoretically allowing Ilham Aliyev to stay in power indefinitely, Robert Gibbs, then White House spokesman was grilled on board Air Force One on the president’s trip to Indiana, asked by the journalists whether the administration’s emissary was delivering a message to Baku on behalf of the president.

“Plouffe is a private citizen in Azerbaijan... If the [US] president had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone. It's a longer flight and a shorter call,” Gibbs told journalists while dismissing the flak that Obama’s campaign manager then received for trip under the auspices of the Association for Civil Society Development, Azeri government-organized NGO.

Following complaints from human rights groups, Plouffe later donated his speaking fees --$50,000 -- to the US-based National Democratic Institute, arguing that he “had no idea about the organizers of the trip.”

Now, four years after the controversy, both Plouffe and Gibbs are about to enjoy paid speaking engagement in Baku, just a few month ahead of the country’s presidential election, where the ruling family is seeking a third, five-year term of office.

According to the official website of US-Azerbaijani Convention (USAC), which will be held early this week (28-29 May) in Baku, a conversation with David Plouffe will be featured on “US and Its Allies: Common Vision and shared Values”, while Robert Gibbs will speak about “The White House, the Nation and the World” at the Convention’s Special Sessions, which will be moderated by the event organizer Kemal Oksuz and American scholar Joshua Walker.

Besides them, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, Vise-President Joe Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens, and former deputy Pentagon chief Paul Wolfowitz will also speak at the Morning Special Sessions of the Convention, on May 29.

As for the organizer of the Convention, the USAC website links to the Houston-based lobby group Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, headed by ethnic Turk Kemal Oksuz.

Among the sponsors of the event SOCAR, Practical Solutions Group LLC, BP, Caspian Drilling Company (CDC), Texas-based Azeri MI Drilling Fluids LTD and several other lobby groups’ names can be found.

“We don’t know whether former top Obama advisors and vise-president’s sister will be getting paid for their speeches or if they are searching for business opportunities, but Baku seems a long way to go for nothing,” TURAN Washington correspondent was told by one of the veteran US diplomats, who called the Baku Convention “an oil-smoking event.”

It’s also not clear whether all the speakers will directly address the auditorium at the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center, named after the current president’s father, a KGB general and former president of Azerbaijan.

Plouffe, who has been Barack Obama’s senior adviser until this January, has long drawn criticism for taking money from groups tied to corrupt foreign governments abroad while on hiatus from advising the president.  Last year, he was accused of taking $100,000 in speaking fees from a firm with ties to Iran and Syria. Plouffe was also paid $48,000 in speaking fees by Turkcell, a Turkish company with ties to Iran.

In Baku, the top US delegation, including group of top Senators and Congressmen will enjoy a welcoming reception of USAC on May 28, at Restaurant “Yacht Club”, organized by Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, according to the Convention official program.

Opening ceremony and Plenary Session on “US-Azerbaijan Relations: Shared Vision for Future” will be held on May 29.

Azerbaijan’s high-ranking official will make the welcoming address, according to the organizers.

Dozens of famous US scholars and former officials, such as Michael Rubin, George Friedman, Matt Bryza, Neil Brown, Bernard Weinstein,  Daniel Stein,  Michael J.G. Cain, David Merkel, Geoffrey F. Gresh, Stephen E. Hanson, Alex Vatanka, Jeff Mankoff, Senator Richard Lugar, Bill Richardson, Duncan McNabb etc. will be actively participating in the sessions of the events mainly focusing on four topics:

-- “The State of the US – Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership: US Foreign Policy toward Azerbaijan”

-- “Energy Security from the Caspian to Europe: the Changing World Energy Security Dynamics:  New prospects for the Southern Energy Corridor"

-- “Azerbaijan between East and West”

--  “Eurasian Security and Cooperation: Azerbaijan’s Role in Regional Peace and Stability”

The closing session of the event will be dedicated to the topic of  “Strategic Partnership between US and Azerbaijan: Next Steps to Be Taken”.

The list of the speakers from the Congress is: 

Congressman Ted Poe, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Gregory Meeks,  Congresswoman Yvette Clark, Congressman Steve Stockman, Congressman Jim Bridenstine,  Congresswoman Michelle L. Grisham, Representative Debbie Rodella, Representative Jonathan Barnett, Representative Moxley, Senator Brandt Hershman, Representative Ronald Walters, Representative Henry Zuber, Representative David R Miller,  Senator Gene Davis,  Representative Lance Gooden,  Senator Stacey Campfield,  Representative Helene Keeley, DE Senator Jim Davis, Rida Cabanilla, Representative Helen Miller, Representative Peter Barca, Representative Lance Russell, Senator Philip Murphy, Senator Alice Johnson, Senator Jolie Justus, Senator Branden Durst, Senator Pamela Roach, Representative Mark Montigny, Representative Lenette Peterson, Senator Chris Bray, Representative Upendra J. Chivukula, Senator Ronald N. Young, Representative Ron Stephens, Representative Jim Patterson, Representative Sharon Pritchett, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Secretary of State Doug La Follette, Secretary of State Mark Martin, Congressman John Sullivan, Congressman Russ Carnahan, Congressman Dan Burton, Congressman Michael McMahon,

What brings so many of Congress members to Baku?

TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent has contacted several Congressmen’s offices but failed to get a direct comment.

In the meantime, some participants recommended TURAN to contact SOCAR’s DC office (?!) and the Azerbaijani Embassy for further comment, giving explanations to the trip, such as “partisan efforts to boost the US-Azerbaijani cooperation,” etc.

For some DC analysts, however, the question is how to deal with post-Soviet regimes with questionable human rights records, that remain central to American foreign policy, but factors such as a country's strategic importance or its oil wealth may blunt an urge to insist on democracy.

 “Clearly, these types of Conventions paid by the authoritarian countries are seeking to serve the regimes’ domestic policy… From our point of view, this is is not rare or even unusual --it’s standard,” one of the former DC lobbyists told TURAN.