Azerbaijan Gains Little from Hiring Expensive U.S. Lobbying
Firms
31-03-2009 14:00:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The Government of Azerbaijan, using its considerable oil
income, has been waging a propaganda campaign to win over U.S.
politicians and denigrate Armenia and Artsakh (Karabagh).
To accomplish these twin objectives, Azerbaijan has spent
millions of dollars over the past 3 years to hire several major
lobbying firms, such as: The Livingston Group; JWI; Chlopak,
Leonard, Schechter & Associates; and Melwood Communications. In
addition, the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles
hired Sitrick & Company over a year ago and later replaced it
with The Tool Shed Group, founded by Jason Katz, former Director
of Public Affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
While Azerbaijan's Embassy, with the support of its
lobbying groups, has been targeting top U.S. officials in
Washington, D.C., its Consulate in Los Angeles has been more
interested in countering the political influence of California's
large Armenian community. Fortunately, neither the Embassy nor
the Consulate has had much success.
Recently, the Embassy of Azerbaijan tried to get members of
Congress to go on record condemning Armenia for the alleged
killings of hundreds of Azeris in 1992 during the Artsakh war.
Despite concerted efforts by its high-powered lobbying firms,
Azerbaijan succeeded in convincing just 1 out of 535 members of
the House and Senate to do so. Cong. Ed Whitfield
(Republican-Kentucky), Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on
Turkey, was the only member of Congress who made remarks about
this highly controversial incident.
Azerbaijan was even less successful in California, despite
its heavy investment of time, money, and manpower. Back in 2005,
Pres. Ilham Aliyev appointed Elin Suleymanov, a graduate of
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, as Azerbaijan's first
Consul General to Los Angeles. Suleymanov told the Azeri Press
Agency that one of his key assignments is to counteract the
political clout of California's Armenian community. He promptly
wrote a letter to the owners of a theater in Los Angeles,
requesting the cancellation of an Artsakh-related event
organized by a local Armenian group. The diplomat's complaint
was summarily dismissed and the event took place as scheduled.
Consul General Sueleymanov's failure cannot be attributed
to his lack of enthusiasm and energy. He has actively tried to
promote Azerbaijan's interests, while missing no opportunity to
belittle Armenia and Artsakh. The lobbying firms hired by his
government have arranged for him to tour Colorado, Hawaii,
Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, and Wyoming and parts of California to
deliver speeches to university students, greet local
politicians, and have guest editorials published under his name
in obscure newspapers.
Suleymanov even visited the Flathead Indian Reservation in
Montana and claimed that there are racial similarities between
Azerbaijanis and Native Americans. A student at the University
of Montana quoted Suleymanov as stating that Native Americans
actually originated from the region of Azerbaijan and that is
why the Consul General "felt a certain kinship for tribal people
of the U.S., like brothers or cousins."
A major accomplishment of Azerbaijan's lobbying firms was
arranging the visit of four California legislators to Baku in
September 2007. Reciprocally, several members of Azerbaijan's
Parliament and a Minister have visited California more than once
in the past three years.
Nevertheless, despite Azerbaijan's intensive lobbying of
California legislators, only 1 out of 120 members of the State
Assembly and Senate agreed to send a letter to President Aliyev
in February 2009, expressing sympathy for "the victims of
Khojali." This letter, signed by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, was
copied from a draft provided by lobbyist Jason Katz. It was
noteworthy that Katz had raised the possibility of sending
friendly legislators on junkets to Azerbaijan.
California State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian
(Democrat-Glendale) worked to prevent other legislators from
signing the Azerbaijani letter by alerting his colleagues about
the falsehoods contained in it. The lone letter signed by
Assemblyman Fuentes was hailed by Consul General Suleymanov as a
major victory for Azerbaijan. The Azeri media disseminated that
letter worldwide, misrepresenting it as a condemnation of an
alleged "genocide" committed by Armenians!
The government of Azerbaijan and its representatives in the
United States do not seem to realize that it is not in their
best interest to denigrate and provoke the influential Armenian
community in California. It was no mere accident that
Suleymanov's recent appearance at California State University at
Northridge was greeted with a student protest.
Should Azerbaijan's Consul General and his hired guns
continue to disseminate falsehoods about Armenia and Artsakh in
the Western United States, Armenian-Americans could neutralize
their propaganda by establishing a public affairs office for
Artsakh in Los Angeles, as a branch of the one now operating in
Washington, D.C.