AZERBAIJAN GAINS LITTLE FROM HIRING EXPENSIVE U.S. LOBBYING FIRMS
By Harut Sassounian

The California Courier
March 31, 2009

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.