Azerbaijan's dictatorial and corrupt government is paying an American PR firm $4.7 million to clean up its tarnished image ahead of hosting the prestigious COP29 international conference in Baku this November.
In February, Azerbaijan hired the US public relations firm Teneo Strategy to make the "warring oil state look like Mother Teresa," according to Nick Cleveland-Stout, who published an article on ResponsibleStatecraft.org titled, "How Azerbaijan Is Cleaning Up Its Image With 'Fake Peace' COP29" before: Baku, with some help from an expensive PR firm, is hosting a climate summit in November.
To earn his exorbitant fee, Teneo contacted "144 journalists from 88 different global media outlets around 500 times to promote Azerbaijan's COP29 agenda... In just one day, the PR company... had dinner with three journalists at a five-star hotel restaurant in Nagorno-Karabakh during a media forum. The very next day, one of them praised Azerbaijan's newly established control over the region in an article published in Pakistan, and a few weeks later tweeted that Azerbaijan was "lucky to have a leader like President Ilham Aliyev."
An Azerbaijani official said his country hired Teneo to "manage the COP29 communications function, including story development, original content development, communications and engagement campaign planning, issue management, organizational development, media relations capacity building and media outreach." training". Nick Cleveland-Stout reported that "at least five Teneo executives are constantly in Baku, spending $350,000 on airfare and hotels to date."
President Aliyev's chief adviser Hikmat Hajiyev has shamelessly announced a "COP29 ceasefire", which means that Azerbaijan is calling on all warring parties in the world to declare a ceasefire during the November conference. Such a false statement is made by a country whose leader has repeatedly threatened to invade Armenia. This reminds us of the biblical admonition. "Doctor, heal yourself!"
Nick Cleveland-Stout wrote: "Azerbaijan has become famous for flaunting its oil wealth to woo foreign officials, lawmakers and journalists with gifts, free flights and luxury hotels, a practice known as 'caviar diplomacy.' According to a trip itinerary obtained through a Freedom of Access Act request by Responsible Statecraft, the Maine lawmakers spent nine days in Azerbaijan in May, with travel, food and lodging provided by the State Committee on Working with the Azerbaijani Diaspora, the same agency that hosted [New - To the assistants of the mayor of York, Eric] Adams. Part of the itinerary included a two-day training session on "new development after liberation from occupation" in Nagorno-Karabakh. "There was
Back at Teneo PR, Nick Cleveland-Stout said: "When Azerbaijan moved 300 foreign journalists to newly-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh for a media forum in July, Teneo held meetings and hosted expensive dinners, discussing interviews with Azerbaijan's COP leadership team."
The correspondent of RS wrote that "Three days after the meeting with Teneo, I think I need to find my passport. I'm so excited...,” state representative Jill Duson wrote in response to the invitation. In June, the Azerbaijani embassy in Washington even hired former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) to coordinate congressional delegation visits to Azerbaijan.
In addition, Nick Cleveland-Stout noted that Azerbaijan has hired another PR firm, "The Friedlander Group, which is a firm hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, [which] is the lead in Congress in Washington." An email obtained by RS shows that the company sent a letter to members of Congress on September 23 asking them not to sign a congressional letter calling on Baku to release Armenian prisoners before COP29." The company's CEO, Ezra Friedlander, wrote to members of Congress: "We owe Azerbaijan praise, an apology and a helping hand."
The influential newspaper du published an article entitled "Climate conference in November to emphasize 'peace' and 'ceasefire'". The company also "contributed to a New York Times article featuring [Mukhtar] Babaev [COP president] in Azerbaijan, based in part on a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh."
Teneo has selected a team of 17 people for the pro-Azerbaijani PR task. Azerbaijani officials are very pleased with Teneo's advocacy for their country. Babayev told Azeri TV that the government's media strategy to change international perceptions of Azerbaijan is a success story, including its "restoration of territorial integrity," referring to its offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. Without mentioning Teneo by name, he praised the new media team, which is "made up of serious professionals..." Thanks to the work of this professional team, there is not a week this year that we do not provide information and make statements to the international media... Now they all understand and see the power of our country."
The saddest thing is that it is Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who allowed Azerbaijan to hold the conference by removing Armenia's veto, releasing two Azerbaijani murderers who infiltrated the border of Armenia in 2023 and killed an innocent Armenian worker in exchange for the release of 32 Armenian prisoners of war.
While I welcome the return of the 32 Armenian POWs, I believe Pashinyan should have bargained for the release of all Armenian POWs held by Azerbaijan in Baku and eight political hostages from Artsakh. President Aliyev was so obsessed with hosting the prestigious UN conference in Azerbaijan that he would agree to such a comprehensive deal.
If Pashinyan were to make such a deal, Armenians and non-Armenian sympathizers around the world would not have to work so hard to pressure Azerbaijan to release all Armenian prisoners before the November conference.
Harut Sassounyan
Translation: Ruzanna Avagyan
More in today's issue of the daily newspaper.
