Gulen Movement SOCOR Azerbaijan bribes US Politicians for favors, your tax dollars at work

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/10-members-of-congress-took-trip-secretly-funded-by-foreign-government/2015/05/13/76b55332-f720-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html

The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference at Baku on the Caspian Sea in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members, according to a confidential ethics report obtained by The Washington Post. Three former top aides to President Obama appeared as speakers at the conference.
Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet nation, according to the 70-page report by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative arm of the House.

[Congressional ethics committees protect legislators, critics say]

The report reflects the most extensive investigation undertaken by the ethics office, which was created seven years ago in response to a number of scandals on Capitol Hill, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s illegal funding of lawmakers’ trips.
The nonprofit corporations allegedly filed false statements with Congress swearing that they were sponsoring the conference. The findings have been referred to the House Committee on Ethics for investigation of possible violations of congressional rules and federal laws that bar foreign governments from trying to influence U.S. policy.
Tom Rust, chief counsel and staff director for the Ethics Committee, declined to comment.
“We don’t comment on investigative matters,” he said.
Kelly Brewington, a spokeswoman for the Office of Congressional Ethics, also declined to comment.
[This article will be updated with additional responses as they are provided to The Post.]
The conference, titled U.S.-Azerbaijan Convention: Vision for the Future, took place on May 28 and 29, 2013. During the previous year, SOCAR and several large energy companies sought exemptions for a $28 billion natural gas pipeline project in the Caspian Sea from U.S. economic sanctions being imposed on Iran.

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The congressional investigators could not determine whether lawmakers used their official positions to benefit SOCAR or the pipeline project. They also found no evidence that the lawmakers or their staffers knew that the conference was being funded by a foreign government.

[Capitol Assets: A close-up look at congressional wealth]

The investigators noted that the lawmakers relied on representations made to them by two Houston-based nonprofit corporations, the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE) and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ). The lawmakers told investigators that they had obtained approval for the trip from the ethics committee.
The report said members of the House Ethics Committee wrote to the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting a halt to their investigation so that the matter could be taken up by their own committee. OCE officials declined the request. A government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said OCE feared that the ethics panel, which has a reputation among watchdog groups for shielding lawmakers from embarrassing disclosures. would not take any meaningful action.
The pipeline has long been an important U.S. policy objective because it would bolster European security by offering an alternative to Russian gas.
One of SOCAR’s partners was the National Iranian Oil Company, known as NIOC, a relationship that had threatened to scuttle the deal if sanctions were approved without an exemption for the Shah Deniz Natural Gas Project. SOCAR and NIOC each were partners with 10 percent of the project, while BP and Norwegian-based Statoil each held 25.5 percent. Russian-based Lukoil also had a 10 percent share and Turkish Petroleum Corp. had 9 percent.
Congress had approved two sanctions bills containing passages that exempted the project, which Obama signed into law in August 2012 and January 2013. On June 3, 2013, five days after the Baku conference, Obama signed an executive order assessing economic sanctions against Iran that also exempted the project.

The Post reported about the trip at the time, in an article noting that three former Obama political advisers — Robert Gibbs, Jim Messina and David Plouffe — spoke at the conference, which was attended by current and former members of Congress. Politico also wrote about the trip and the Houston Chronicle reported that SOCAR had been a sponsor of the conference and raised questions about the nonprofits involved. Only one Western news organization covered the event, the Washington Diplomat, a monthly that writes about the diplomatic community in the nation’s capital.
But no information surfaced at the time about the alleged $750,000 payment from SOCAR to the nonprofits. Ethics investigators obtained a wire transfer showing that SOCAR sent the $750,000 to AFAZ. SOCAR’s legal counsel told the investigators that the money was “dues” that were “intended to be used as funding for the Convention.”
The lawmakers who took the trip were Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), Rubén Hinojosa (D-Tex.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), Ted Poe (R-Tex.) and then-Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.).
Clarke is a member of the Ethics Committee.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), attended as part of a separate congressional delegation and his expenses were not paid by the conference, according to the report.

“My official visit was part of my House Armed Services and NATO responsibilities,” Turner told The Post in a statement. “During the visit I met with the President, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan and received a classified briefing from U.S. personnel. I was a scheduled speaker at the conference, with former Senator Lugar. The conference did not pay my expenses and I did not receive any gifts.”
Davis told The Post that the Ethics Committee approved the trip, which he took with his wife, and that he didn’t realize it had been fundedby SOCAR. He said he saw the oil company’s logos in Baku, but “to be very honest about it, I didn’t pay them much attention, honestly.”

 

He also said that during the conference he received one rug, which was delivered to his hotel room and is in storage in his basement in Chicago. He said he is considering donating the rug to a museum or a charity.
Davis also said lawmakers should ask more questions about the source of funding for conferences and congressional travel in the future.
“Some of these things that we take sometimes for granted probably require a bit more investigation or more prudence,” he said. “So maybe we’ll exercise a bit more scrutiny. I will.”
Hinojosa, who attended the conference with his wife, said he was also unaware of SOCAR’s involvement.
“Prior to the trip to Azerbaijan and Turkey, I sought approval from the U.S. House Committee on Ethics to travel,” he said in a statement. “I relied upon this written authorization in deciding to travel overseas. I believed the purpose of the trip was to strengthen U.S.-Turkey and U.S.-Azerbaijani relations. I received souvenirs of what I believed to be of minimal value and in compliance with the House Gift rule.”
The statement added: “My staff and I have fully cooperated with the investigation. Importantly, the report notes that there is no evidence to suggest that Members of Congress who went on the trip knew that impermissible sponsors and organizers may have been involved and that Members relied on the sponsors’ representations in good faith.”
Lance declined to comment, citing the ongoing ethics investigation. A senior staff member who declined to speak publicly said the congressman was unaware that SOCAR had sponsored the event and that he had returned the one rug he received after he returned to Washington. The staff member also said Lance received a pair of earrings and reimbursed the nonprofit group that helped organize the conference $100 immediately upon returning to New Jersey

Trip organized in plain sight

Although lawmakers told investigators that they were unaware that the Azerbaijani government had underwritten the trip through its oil company, investigators noted that SOCAR organized much of the conference in plain sight. The oil company issued invitations, sponsored visa entries for the lawmakers and staff members, and hung banners and placards emblazoned with SOCAR’s logo throughout the conference halls in Baku.

 

The investigators concluded in their report that “a person’s ignorance of the true source of travel expenses is not an absolute shield from liability for receipt of travel expenses from an improper source.”
Several members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has oversight of U.S. relations with Iran and the economic sanctions, attended the conference. They included one of the panel’s most influential members, Poe, who chairs its subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.
The report said Poe was among those who did not fully cooperate with the Office of Congressional Ethics or did not acknowledge receipt of their request for information.
In a statement to The Post, Shaylyn Hynes, Poe’s spokeswoman said, “Congressman Poe did cooperate,” providing investigators with documents and answers to their questions.
“The House Committee on Ethics then requested that the OCE cease its review because it was conducting its own investigation,” Hynes’s statement said. “As a result, we alerted OCE that we were communicating and cooperating directly with the House Committee on Ethics, the official arbiter of House ethics matters.”

 

Hynes’s statement added that the congressman thought the conference was being sponsored by the nonprofits.
“In its report, the OCE clearly states it did not receive any evidence that the Congressman knew that TCAE was not the sole organizer or sponsor of the travel,” Hynes’s statement said. “The OCE further correctly found that “Representative Poe acted in good faith reliance on information received from the purported trip sponsor and approval from the Committee on Ethics.”
According to the report, three other lawmakers who took the trip also declined to cooperate with the ethics office or did not respond: Jackson Lee, a member of the Homeland Security Committee; Lance, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Meeks, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Lance’s staff member said the lawmaker had been ready to cooperate with the Office of Congressional Ethics when he was told by the House Ethics Committee that it would examine the case. Lance is now cooperating with that panel.

 

Those who went to the conference and cooperated with the investigation said they thought the nonprofit corporations had funded the trip and reported their travel expenses on their disclosure forms. Several said they believed they did not need to disclose the gifts because their value did not exceed the $350 reporting threshold.
Lujan Grisham told ethics investigators that she did not disclose the rugs because she did not think they were particularly valuable. She also thought that they were unattractive.
“It’s not a carpet I would have purchased,” the congresswoman said.
In recent years, as relations between the United States and Iran have deteriorated over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Congress and the Obama administration have stepped up economic sanctions. The government of Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran, hired several lobbying firms to build a better relationship with policymakers in Washington.

Considering new sanctions

As Congress weighed a new round of sanctions against Iran in 2012, SOCAR opened an office in Washington, buying a building in Dupont Circle for $12 million. On April 25 and 26, 2012, a conference called U.S.-Azerbaijan Relations: Vision for Future was held at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in downtown Washington.
Among the attendees were Poe, Meeks, and Jackson Lee. Ethics investigators said it appeared that SOCAR was a “major funder” of the conference, citing interviews and photographs published on a Web site for the event that showed banners with SOCAR’s logos inside the hotel.
At the time, Congress was considering the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act. The bill contained a provision that would exempt the gas pipeline project from Iranian sanctions. The provision said that “nothing” in the measure would apply to “the development of natural gas and the construction and operation of a pipeline to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Europe.”
Three months later, on July 30, 2012, Obama signed an executive order authorizing additional sanctions against Iran and exempting the pipeline. On Aug. 1, Congress approved the sanctions legislation and the exemption. Obama signed it into law nine days later.
Before adjourning for Christmas, Congress approved another sanctions bill called the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, which was part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. That bill also contained an exemption for the gas pipeline. On Jan. 2, 2013, Obama signed the legislation into law.
Soon, members of Congress began receiving invitations to attend a springtime conference in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan known for its mix of medieval architecture and gleaming modern buildings along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Exiled Imam Fethullah Gulen started his schools in Azerbaijan some 25 years ago
it is followers of the Gulen Movement which control, operate and fund SOCOR oil.
Gulen lobbying in the USA via the Charter Schools they operate is very important to the
country of Azerbaijan which doesn't have deep seated roots into the USA lobbying except
for funding as part of AFAZ and other groups they belong to

A month before the conference, the nonprofit AFAZ was set up in Houston, home to some of the world’s largest energy companies. AFAZ was created as an “educational, cultural, business, congressional advocacy and charitable organization” with the mission of building “bridges between the United States and Azerbaijan,” according to the nonprofit’s Web site.

The investigators for the Office of Congressional Ethics found that AFAZ and the other Houston-based nonprofit, TCAE, were used to conceal the true source of the funding for travel and other expenses for the U.S. officials.

“The OCE found that the disclosed nonprofit sponsors contributed virtually no money towards congressional travel to Azerbaijan and played a very limited role in organizing the Convention,” the report said.

On April 16, 2013, Kemal Oksuz, an executive in charge of the nonprofits, wrote to the president of SOCAR, requesting $750,000 to underwrite the conference, according to the report. In return, Oksuz pledged that SOCAR’s “logo will be used on all printed materials, banners and website, and that SOCAR will be recognized as the Main Sponsor of the Convention.”

On May 13, SOCAR transferred $750,000 into the Wells Fargo account of AFAZ, according to the report. Three days later, AFAZ made its first money transfer to pay for the plane tickets for the conference attendees.

“SOCAR and AFAZ provided gifts in the form of impermissible travel expenses to congressional travelers in violation of House rules, regulations and federal law,” the ethics investigators said.

‘Sponsors’ provided no funding

Last summer, the Houston Chronicle published an examination of the Baku conference and interviewed Oksuz. He told the newspaper that he was not required to disclose corporate sponsorships because “those contributions always came after the conventions.”

 

Gulen's American Terrorist Gang, head of education, lobbying, junkets, etc.,
Salim Ucan, Faruk Taban, Bilal Eksili, Kemal Oksuz, Alp Aslandogan
All arrived in the USA under h1-b Visas facilitated by politicians like Shiela Jackson Lee
They are in the USA not as loyal Americans but to serve Gulen's interests and promote Turkish interests only. 

Kemal Oksuz, the King of the Junkets and Gulen Troll



The investigators said five nonprofits affiliated with the Azerbaijani government said they sponsored the conference, filing sworn statements with the Ethics Committee in April and May 2013.
“The five sponsoring organizations contributed no funding for the congressional travel in spite of false affirmations on the forms they submitted to the Committee on Ethics,” the investigators wrote in the report.

 

SOCAR assembled a list of lawmakers, other U.S. officials and private individuals it wanted to attend the three-day conference. The oil company invited more than 30 people to speak in Baku, according to the report, including Gibbs, Messina and Plouffe. SOCAR also invited Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had lost his reelection campaign in 2012.
In addition to SOCAR, BP, ConocoPhillips and KBR also helped to underwrite the costs of the conference, estimated at $1.5 million. Those costs included $100,000 for hotel accommodations, $75,000 for food and entertainment, and $1.2 million for travel and other expenses.
Several members of Congress and their staff members also took side trips to Turkey, traveling to Istanbul, Ankara or both, the investigators found. They included Clarke, Lujan Grisham, Hinojosa and Lance.
The Bosphorus Atlantic Cultural Association of Friendship and Cooperation, a Turkish nonprofit organization, covered the expenses, the report said. The lawmakers did not disclose the role of that nonprofit.
“Members of Congress who traveled to Turkey accepted payment of travel expenses from impermissible sources, resulting in an impermissible gift, in violation of House rules and regulations,” the report found.
Investigators also said lawmakers received a number of gifts, including crystal tea sets, briefcases, silk scarves, turquoise earrings, gold-painted plates and Azerbaijani rugs. Some congressional staff members told the investigators they thought that the rugs were worth about $300 — $50 below the reporting threshold — and that they didn’t need to disclose them on their forms filed with the Ethics Committee.
The report said “evidence suggests” that all lawmakers received at least one rug and some got two, one prayer-sized and one area rug. Many staff members also received rugs.
Only one lawmaker, Bridenstine, disclosed the rugs on his financial forms. He had them appraised: the smaller rug at $2,500 and the larger at $3,500. In a July 2013 letter to the Ethics Committee, he said he wanted to donate the larger rug to the House Clerk’s Office.

Kemal Oksuz seen with Nevada Congressman Harry Reid
Kemal Oksuz has only been in the USA 15 years as other members of the Gulen Movement
arrived via H1-b Visas to be teachers at their Gulen operated publicly funded charter schools

From DC, to Texas, to Chicago to Nevada and then to New Mexico, here is Kemal Oksuz R
with members of the NMSU - New Mexico State University signing the paperwork to give
$$$ to NMSU from Azerbaijan for scholarships. 

Bridenstine was the only lawmaker to offer to pay for the rugs out of his own pocket, telling the committee that he would like to purchase the smaller rug “at fair market value.”
But, ultimately, he decided not to keep the rugs.
“Having sought advice from the Committee on Ethics, I determined the best course of action was to return the rugs and I did so,” he said in a statement to The Post. “I also received a porcelain tea set which was valued at $87, well under the Foreign Gifts Disclosure Act rules, and an educational book and four local traditional music CDs.”

Kemal Oksuz at a SOCAR event with Houston mayor Annise Parker

Every one of the logos on this backdrop are Gulen operated organizations. 

 

KEMAL OKSUZ mentioned on Sunlight Foundation which investigations corrupt lobby, trace that

to the school in Louisana raided by the FBI (Kenliworth Math and Science Academy) Kemal Oksuz

had donated $80,000 to the Lousiana RNC the largest amount every to get a bill quashed that

would forbid foreigners from operating Charter Schools.  Maybe Kemal will join the other Gulen Money man Adem Arici in Federal Prison.  shame on you Kemal. 

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/12/17/retiring-moran-in-negotiations-with-azerbaijani-influence-group/

HERE is a refreshing on Azerbaijan /Gulen Movement trying to spread it's "love" into Hawaii, caught red handed http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/13472/Islamic-Gulen-Cult-Pours-Money-into-Takai-Campaign.aspx

Is oil rich Azerbaijan ready to give up on their US lobbying via the Gulen Movement?

Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen has during the past three decades built a network of schools, businesses, media-outlets, and civil-society organizations. The closing of schools in Azerbaijan based on his principles could affect Turkey’s relations with the US.

Azerbaijan’s recent crackdown on institutions and individuals allegedly linked to the influential Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen may not have halted promotional work by Gülen-associated organizations in the United States for the Azerbaijani government.

Baku’s wariness toward the elderly Turkish cleric, now living in Pennsylvania, first surfaced last December, whenTurkey, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, claimed that Gülen planned to overthrow the government of then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a formerly close Gülen ally.

Following an April meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Erdoğan, a few influential Azerbaijani officials, tagged by media as sympathetic to Gülen, lost their positions, and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) took over private high-schools, university-exam-preparation courses and a university run by a company linked to the so-called Gülen-movement. Some of the facilities were later closed.

Azerbaijani media had claimed that the movement, which advocates moderate Islam coupled with globalization, interfaith dialogues and “betterment of the individual,” had “infiltrated” Azerbaijan’s secular government.

But this supposed concern may not have extended to the movement’s lobbying efforts for Azerbaijan in the US.
In reality, noted Fuad Aliyev, a researcher into Islam in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani government has “a close relationship” with the Gülen network, which “helps the government to lobby itself in Washington.”
Lobbying both local and national American politicians is a top priority for Azerbaijan, which, at just under $2.3 million, ranked among the top ten foreign countries for such expenditures in the US in 2013, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundations, a Washington, DC-based advocate for government-accountability.
As the South-Caucasus country sees its international profile rising – whether as a strategic energy hub or partner in the West’s anti-terrorism campaigns – that priority will remain intact.
But Azerbaijan also uses less overt lobbying methods.
One of the chief among them appears to be the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE), a Houston,Texas-based non-profit umbrella group that describes its aim as “pursuing the interests of Turkic Americans and friends of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Houston, Washington and beyond.”
TCAE’s president and chief executive officer, Kemal Oksuz, formerly served as executive director of the Niagara Foundation, a Chicago-based network of non-profits that promote the teachings of Fetullah Gülen, the Foundation’s honorary president. Oksuz himself also has worked as head of the Gülen Institute, a Houston research organization that shares a similar goal.
Aside from cultural outreach programs within the US, the TCAE organizes trips for US congresspersons to Azerbaijan, US-Azerbaijan conventions and dinners with US officials. It also has promoted statewide recognition of the 1992 massacre of ethnic Azeris in Khojaly, during Azerbaijan’s war with Armenia over breakaway Nagorno Karabakh, as well as Azerbaijan’s oil and gas-pipeline projects.
The reason for that interest is clear: Oksuz serves as the president of the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ), another Houston-based non-profit organization. Rauf Mammadov, head of SOCAR USA, serves as the group’s treasurer.
Whether SOCAR’s takeover of the Gülen-linked educational facilities in Azerbaijan affected that relationship is not known. Neither AFAZ nor the Turquoise Council was available for comment.
In late April, though, after the warnings about a supposed Gülen-directed “infiltration” of the Azerbaijani government had begun, the Turquoise Council went ahead with promotions for the AFAZ-hosted, annual US-Azerbaijan Convention.
No Turquoise Council public events involving promotion of Azerbaijan are known to have occurred since then, however.
But those who have followed the Gülen movement’s activities in both Azerbaijan and Turkey doubt that Baku will want to call it quits – barring, that is, fresh pressure from now Turkish President Erdoğan, who recently received Azerbaijan’s highest honor, the Order of Heydar Aliyev.
“I don’t think that this is something [that] Azerbaijani diplomacy can easily refuse because [the] Azerbaijani community and lobby capacities in the US are weak, whereas [the]Turkish-Gülenist associations are very well implemented,” commented Bayram Balci, a scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Russia and Eurasia Program who formerly worked in Baku for the French Institute of Anatolian Studies.
A dozen US state legislatures have passed resolutions or adopted citations related to the Khojaly massacre since 2011. The measures have been publicized heavily by Gülen-sympathetic Turkic or Turkey-related organizations.
The promotion, however, works both ways, commented Aliyev.
“That lobby help was a guarantee of safety for Gülen schools and Gulen-linked entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan.”
But why the Gülen movement would continue to promote Azerbaijani causes in the US despite the takeover of Gülen-associated educational operations in Azerbaijan remains unclear.
As yet, small and mid-size Turkish businesses in Azerbaijan identified by researchers as run by Gülen sympathizers do not appear to have been similarly targeted.
Aliyev attributes that immunity to the movement’s importance for the Azerbaijani government. The Turquoise Council, in particular, is believed to have warm ties with the Azerbaijan American Alliance led by Anar Mammadov, son of Azerbaijani Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov, and a member of one of the country’s most politically influential families.
But, ultimately, what long-term return Azerbaijan can find from such lobbying groups, whether paid or unpaid, is uncertain, noted Richard D. Kauzlarich, a former US ambassador to Azerbaijan who now teaches at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.
“The fact that they can assemble a group of former officials and members of Congress is not unusual. If you spend enough money. . .,” Ambassador Kauzlarich wrote in an email interview with EurasiaNet.org. “From Baku, the participants may appear to be ‘important,’ but, in the context of Washington politics . . . it’s not who shows up at receptions and dinners, but who can get things done . . . that determines one’s ‘importance.’”
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/70271

Meanwhile at the Kennedy center in Washington DC, Azerbaijan Lobbying celebrates the "Contract of the Century"

 



Azerbaijani News in U.S., Oil & Gas

20th Anniversary of “Contract of the Century” Celebrated in Washington, DC

September 18, 2014 •    from Texas Azerbaijani Organization

http://texasazerbaijanis.com/20th-anniversary-contract-century-celebrated-washington-dc/

WASHINGTON, D.C.
“Contract of the Century”, signed on September 20, 1994, marks the beginning of independent Azerbaijan’s policy of energy diversification, initiated by late President Heydar Aliyev and symbolizes the success, gained by Azerbaijan in regional and international partnerships. The contract signed in Baku with the participation of major energy companies and partner countries is still important and relevant after 20 years.
To honor the success of the contract and the international partnership that guaranteed this success, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to United States, BP, SOCAR and USACC organized a reception at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, one of the most prestigious cultural centers of the capital. The event was attended by the representatives of Obama Administration, top officials of U.S. State Department and Department of Energy, congressmen, representatives of diplomatic corps, academic circles as well as members of the business community.
Opening the ceremony, the speakers highlighted the historical significance of the deal, its successful implementation and achievements to date. Ambassador Elin Suleymanov underlined the signing of the “Contract of the Century” under Heydar Aliyev’s strong leadership as an important step to export the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian to international markets. Ambassador Suleymanov noted that the event honoring the 20th Anniversary of the “Contract of the century” that will be held in Baku on September 20 will mark yet another date in the history of the contract. He informed the audience about the groundbreaking ceremony of Southern Gas Corridor to be held in Baku on September 20 and said he believes this event will be the beginning of a new era for all the region and participant countries. Bill Delahunt, former Congressman and new USACC Co-Chairman and Susan Sadigova, USACC Executive Director spoke about the contribution the contract had made to the development of Azerbaijan and the whole region.
Members of U.S. Congress – Jim Moran, Ruben Hinojosa, Andre Carson, Henry Cuellar and Donald Payne – expressed their support for the development of U.S.-Azerbaijan relations, stressed the leading role of Azerbaijan in the region and congratulated it with the success of “Contract of the Century”.
Reflecting on his firs trip to Azerbaijan before the “Contract of the Century” was signed 20 years ago, Jim Moran commended on the enormous development Azerbaijan made during this period and recommended everyone to visit Azerbaijan.
Ruben Hinojosa highlighted the work implemented under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic with the focus on turning “black gold into human capital”.
Andre Carson praised the contribution Azerbaijan was making in the energy security of Europe.
Congressmen Pete Gallego, Mike Fitzpatrick and Steve Stockman also attended the event and expressed their support to Azerbaijan.
Joe Murphy, Vice President of Southern Corridor for Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey and Michael Hoffman, External Affairs Director for Trans-Adriatic Pipeline reminded the pessimistic views expressed about the “Contract of the Century” in the past and added that the success of the contract proves that Southern Gas Corridor groundbreaking ceremony to be held in a few days will be as successful.
Amos Hochstein, Acting Special Envoy of U.S. Department of State, Jonathan Elkind, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs of Department of Energy and Eric Rubin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Department of State reminded the crucial and consistent support the U.S. government extended to the “Contract of the Century” and its role in the strong cooperation between U.S. and Azerbaijan. Amos Hochstein, who will be attending the event honoring 20th Anniversary of the Contract of Century in Baku and Jonathan Elkind, who was the participant of the signing ceremony of the contract in Baku 20 years ago, spoke about the future perspectives of Southern Gas Corridor. Deputy Assistant Secretary Rubin stressed the importance given to Azerbaijan by the U.S. and said he believed these relations are based on constructive partnership, mutual respect, understanding and support.
The event continued with the performance of Azerbaijan’s talented jazz pianist Emil Afrasiyab and the national dances performed by Silk Road Dance Group.
 

Gulen Politicians in Ohio, questioned about Turkey trip and the answer is PORK?

Gulen and his "boys" lead lobbyists for Turkey, Azerbaijan and other
Turkic Countries (L) Faruk Taban   (R) Kemal Oksuz

More information on Turkish Lobbying http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/is-the-turquoise-council-the-paid-lobbying-firm-of-azerbaijans-government.html

 

Is the Gulen Movement getting into Pork Exports to Turkey? (Alleged)
hog farmers, money and politics Rory Ryan Rory Ryan Rory Ryan Publisher/Editor


Maybe I need to be a little more careful about what I write. Maybe not. Typically, if I wrote, I'll stand by it – until, of course, a new set of information arises. That said, last week, I wrote that it would be nice if State Rep. Cliff Rosenberger and Highland County Commissioner Jeremy Shaffer would publicly share precisely what benefits to Highland County have been derived from their Niagara Foundation-funded "economic trade mission" to Turkey in 2011. I also offered an invitation to members of the local Republican Party to publicly share their thoughts on Turkish money and its impact in Ohio politics, government and, more importantly, education. Maybe I should ask the Turks, themselves. After all, as has been widely reported, more than $900 million of tax money earmarked for public education in the 2013-14 school year did not go toward public education. The Ohio School Boards Association reports: "Ohio Department of Education data shows traditional public schools will lose more than $870 million in state funding to charter schools in fiscal year 2014. "That's an increase of 5.4 percent over FY 2013, when approximately $824 million was transferred from traditional public schools to charters. "This increase comes amid ongoing reports of charter school mismanagement, conflicts of interest and felony indictments and convictions."



 At the July 30 meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners, Mr. Shaffer was asked, again, what local benefits have been derived from the much-publicized Niagara Foundation-funded trip to Turkey in 2011. The Niagara Foundation is linked to Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen and his charter schools that are under a state and FBI investigation. Commissioner Shaffer stated that a "Mowrystown hog farm operation" has benefited from the state and local officials' 2011 Turkey trek through increased pork exports. He named the alleged owner of this alleged hog farm operation. Since I've known the alleged owner for more than 40 years, and since I've known his family to be cattle and crops farmers, I contacted him and asked how, exactly, he benefited from Ohio lawmakers and county officials traveling to the former Ottoman Empire. Suffice it to say that the alleged Mowrystown hog farmer was surprised to learn of his supposed good fortune. The farmer asked me to ask the Turkey travelers just two questions:
1. Where is this Highland County hog farm operation, so we can all visit it?
2. How did southern Ohio Republicans convince a multitude of Muslims to eat pork?

Not being a very smart man, I cannot answer either question, amusing as they are. Once again, I'll offer an invitation to those on the train to Istanbul to explain. (We'll give a pass to the Republican state representative with the 53 criminal indictments. He's been a bit pre-occupied since the 2011 sightseeing adventure.) The company some people keep… After much searching of our archives and other media archives, I have yet to determine precisely how Highland County has benefited from this so-called trade mission to Turkey. Let's remember, too, that some of these politicians send media "news" releases whenever they take as much as a pit stop in their respective districts. Granted, as a good friend of mine suggested, there are some days when I'm more confused than a schizophrenic house cat on a new mosaic floor. Maybe this is one of those days. At the very least, though, one would think the Ohio pols would remember the Turkish benefits to former Second District Congresswoman Jean Schmidt – another Republican – and point to that as some "accomplishment," her ethics violations notwithstanding. But, no. Silence remains golden.

http://highlandcountypress.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=22&ArticleID=23833

Gulen Politicians Trips to Baku Conference raises ethics question

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Lawmakers-trips-to-Baku-conference-raise-eithics-5649142.php?cmpid=twitter-premium&t=3a9014c8757fcfd54e

HERE IS THE US LAWMAKERS WITH THE PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN, ALIYEV

more information on Azerbaijan http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/is-the-turquoise-council-the-paid-lobbying-firm-of-azerbaijans-government.html

Lawmakers' trips to Baku conference raise ethics questions Question lingers: Who paid tab for luxury jaunt prior to sanction vote? By Will Tucker and Lise Olsen July 26, 2014 | Updated: July 27, 2014 12:16am

In May 2013, Richard Lugar, former U.S. senator and onetime chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, took the podium at a sleek, modern convention center in the capital of Azerbaijan and urged the U.S. Congress to exempt a natural gas field in the Caspian Sea from economic sanctions against Iran. The Baku conference was sponsored in part by SOCAR, the Azeri national oil company, and the vast Shah Deniz gas field was a potential game-changer in the country's quest to become a major player in global energy circles. But one of SOCAR's partners in the Shah Deniz project was the Iranian national oil company, NIOC, and Congress was considering a new round of sanctions against Iran, Azerbaijan's neighbor, that could potentially derail a $28 billion project. The Azeris, SOCAR and other major energy partners in the Shah Deniz project desperately wanted an exemption. Ten congressmen and 35 staffers accepted all- expense-paid trips to the Baku conference. In Lugar's audience that day were three members of the U.S. House of Representatives who sit on the House Foreign Affairs committee considering Iranian sanctions - Texas Reps. Steve Stockman and Ted Poe, both Republicans; and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. Less than two months later, the day before the House vote, the Shah Deniz exemption mysteriously appeared in the final draft of the sanctions bill, which passed. It's unclear who engineered that last-minute change. Ethics rules at issue A Houston Chronicle analysis of reports that Stockman, Poe, Meeks and the seven other U.S. lawmakers later filed with the House Ethics Committee show that none disclosed any sponsorship of their Baku conference trips by corporations, foreign governments or lobbyists.

 Taking a foreign trip to a conference sponsored by corporations that employ lobbyists appears to be a violation of congressional ethics rules, according to the House ethics manual. The conference in Azerbaijan's capital included a discussion by Kemal Oksuz, right, with President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe. Larry Luxner The conference in Azerbaijan's capital included a discussion by Kemal Oksuz, right, with President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe. Only five of the 10 American lawmakers who made the Baku trip agreed to respond to the Chronicle's questions and said they complied with disclosure requirements. The 2013 conference, called "U.S.-Azerbaijan: Vision for Future," was held at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, a gleaming white architectural masterpiece by the Caspian Sea that, though named for a despot, serves as a symbol of Azerbaijan's transformation from former Soviet-bloc state to an energy-rich political player. SOCAR, along with other Azeri government interests, has become one of Washington, D.C.'s big spenders in efforts to win American allies to get its petroleum products to markets worldwide. Public records, programs, photos, emails and interviews collected by the Chronicle confirm that lobbyists, the Azeri government and energy companies all participated in the elaborate Baku gathering. In addition to the 10 U.S. House members and staffers, state legislators and local politicians accepted all-expense-paid trips to the conference, which was festooned with the logos of SOCAR's powerful energy allies, including BP and ConocoPhillips.

Along with Stockman and Poe, Texas lawmakers Sheila Jackson Lee and Ruben Hinojosa, both Democrats, made the trip. At least four congressmen took along a spouse or fiancé. Some flew first-class and extended their trips with stays in luxury hotels in Turkey. The congressional travel tabs alone totaled $270,000, trip reports compiled by the Chronicle show. That doesn't include fees or expenses paid to former government officials, like Lugar, who attended as speakers. He declined an interview request. And according to documents, those bills were covered by five related, U.S.-based Turkic nonprofit organizations, one of which, the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, is based in Houston and described itself as the event's "organizer." Under federal law, the Turquoise Council was required to disclose any corporate support or foreign government assistance for the Baku congressional trips. The Chronicle's analysis indicates it did not. Scandals led to reforms Scandals involving jaunts enjoyed by lawmakers to Caribbean islands and lavish European golf outings prompted the House of Representatives in 2008 to approve reforms that banned lobbyists and corporations that employ U.S. lobbyists from planning or funding foreign trips. But foreign governments or corporations can still donate to nonprofits that give foreign trips to congressmen - a loophole that has created a boom in nonprofit-funded trips - provided both the nonprofits and the lawmakers disclose such support. "Knowing the sponsors of these fact-finding trips gives voters the opportunity to hold their representatives accountable for any improper relationships. Without transparency there is no accountability," said Benjamin Freeman, a senior policy adviser at the nonpartisan Third Way in Washington, D.C. "How often does this happen? The honest answer is that we have no idea, because we don't know who many of these sponsors are. That must change." The Baku conference, the marquee event of the congressional trips, featured a speech from Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, whose family controls much of his country's wealth, and focused on Azerbaijan's political and energy agenda. It enjoyed substantial corporate support, including sponsorships from BP, ConocoPhillips and Caspian Drilling, as well as from SOCAR itself.

Energy giant BP confirmed with the Chronicle that it contributed $10,000 for the convention and gave more again this year for a follow-up event in Washington. In an email, Houston-based organizer Kemal Oksuz said the Turquoise Council received $10,000 from various sponsors for the Baku conference, whose names appeared on the conference website. But Oksuz did not disclose that in travel forms he filed for congressmen who accepted funding from his group. Oksuz said he did not have to disclose corporate sponsorships, in part, because "those contributions always came after the conventions." Nondisclosures illegal Lawmakers who went to Baku and nonprofits alike should have disclosed any corporate conference sponsorships, said Ken Boehm, an expert in congressional ethics who reviewed the records at the Chronicle's request. By failing to do so, even after seeing event banners and websites listing sponsors, congressmen may have violated ethics rules, he said.

Leaders of nonprofits that organized trips to Baku may have violated federal law by failing to disclose corporate sponsors, said Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a nonprofit that promotes ethics in government. "Once the corporate sponsors admit their paid involvement, it's game over for whoever signed the House pre-trip forms stating falsely that there was no such sponsorship," he said. To pass muster, congressional "fact-finding" trips abroad must be organized principally for education purposes. Congressional officials must first ask the House Ethics Committee for permission to go, and sponsors must affirm that lobbyists will neither be involved in planning nor accompany House members on the trip. Nonprofits sponsoring trips must disclose support from corporations or foreign agents. And, once they return to the United States, lawmakers must report true sponsors of trips to the best of their knowledge. Records show that Meeks did not disclose his Baku trip expenses until a year after the deadline. Meeks did not respond to a request for comment. Congressman Poe and two other Houston-area House members - Stockman and Jackson Lee - spoke at the conference in Baku at the invitation of the Turquoise Council. All three took flights that cost from $10,500 to $12,000, more than the current advertised first-class fares. Stockman got another $5,000 in campaign contributions in three installments that same month from Oksuz personally. Neither Stockman nor Jackson Lee responded to any questions. Poe said all trip expenses were properly disclosed. "The congressman does not believe he was lobbied in Baku," said spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes. "He viewed the events as informational." Hinojosa emphasized that "all expenses were also reported and approved. The purpose for the trip was to learn more about U.S. interests, and in my case, educational programs that the Azerbaijani government is developing." Dominic Gabello, chief of staff for Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said her boss used the trip as an "opportunity to learn more about the challenges Azerbaijan faces" and specifically questioned Azeri leaders about how they deal with poverty. "She has not been lobbied about specific issues," Gabello said. Vague tax records Oksuz, a Houston public relations director, serves as president of the Turquoise Council. He told the lone U.S. journalist present in Baku that the event cost around $1.5 million and that he'd offered speakers fees of $2,500. Some accepted gifts of hand-woven rugs, too, he told the Washington Diplomat.

Kemal Oksuz leads two nonprofits that share the same suite in a Galleria office tower, tax records show. Both groups were identified as sponsors or organizers of the Baku conference, and both have accepted money from SOCAR. One group, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, operates as a U.S.-based public relations arm of SOCAR, according to foreign government lobbying disclosures filed in 2014. Via email, Oksuz answered a few basic questions, but then repeatedly delayed and canceled interviews requested by the Chronicle. He did not respond to requests to provide updated financial records that his nonprofit must disclose under state and federal laws. The Turquoise Council's 2012 nonprofit tax return, available on the Internet, is "bare bones," discloses no expenses related to trips for elected officials and provides unusually vague descriptions of major funding sources, said David Nelson, a Houston attorney who specializes in nonprofit law. '

Educational' trips Records show the Turquoise Council shared Baku congressional trip expenses with four other interconnected and obscure nonprofit organizations run by Turkic Americans, all of which claim to use "educational" trips to promote cross-cultural understanding, according to a Houston Chronicle review of dozens of federal disclosure records and nonprofit tax returns. The groups included the Turkic American Federation of Midwest, based in Chicago; an umbrella group called the Council of Turkic American Associations, based in New York City and the Turkic American Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.. Each group leader identified his own nonprofit as lone trip sponsor. Faruk Taban, leader of the Turkic American Alliance, said his group works to coordinate efforts among 240 different community associations. Generally, those groups work to "foster dialogue and understanding between Turkic states - in this specific case, Azerbaijan - and the U.S. Our work focuses as much on promoting understanding between the countries as between the communities," he said via email. Many of those nonprofits are led by followers of Fetullah Gulen, a moderate Turkish ex-imam who lives in exile in an enclave in Pennsylvania but wields a philosophical and political influence throughout the Islamic world.

Many Gulenists are involved in prep schools in Turkey and in Azerbaijan, as well as in charter schools in the United States, including the Harmony Schools in Texas. Denies hiring lobbyists Collectively, Turkic groups have funded 272 foreign trips for members of Congress and their staffs from 2009-2013, according to information analyzed by the Chronicle from a database of travel data compiled by LegiStorm. Together they have helped make Turkey the top foreign travel destination for members of Congress, after Israel. Trips to Azerbaijan are far less common. Oksuz said the Turquoise Council has no formal ties to Gulen. He denied retaining any lobbyists or foreign agents in disclosures he made as a Baku 2013 trip sponsor. Other records show that a SOCAR official in Azerbaijan, who normally would have nothing to do with visa approvals, helped Oksuz obtain visas for 21 people, including members of Congress and a lobbyist, Ari Mittleman of the Washington firm Roberti&White, a registered foreign agent. Records show lobbyists attended the conference - and two reported meeting with congressmen the day of their 12-hour return flight to the US.

There is no rule against lobbyists and congressmen meeting on foreign soil, though there is one forbidding them from accompanying each other on trips. "Once they get members overseas, it's kind of back to the wild, wild West of lobbying," said Freeman. "So long as the foreign agent and policymaker are overseas; the requirements for reporting meetings are void." Historical connection Azeri interests have continued conversations with D.C. lawmakers with help from one of the nonprofits run by Oksuz. In April, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan held another "U.S.-Azerbaijan: Vision for Future" convention, this time at the Willard Hotel in Washington. It is the lobby of the Willard, where influential men once stood around hoping to buttonhole President Ulysses S. Grant, that inspired the term "lobbyists." Many of the same sponsors from last year returned, including SOCAR, BP and ConocoPhillips. But several U.S. lawmakers advertised as speakers did not show up. Then came a late announcement: Rep. Steve Stockman would speak. Stockman walked to the podium and, in a booming voice, called for the U.S. to "stand by" Azerbaijan. "We have a lot of friends in the media who want to criticize this country, but I've been there," he said. "The future is there … One day I hope for a direct flight from Houston to Baku."

Gulen Azerbaijan lobbying in Tennessee backfires

Rep. Joe Towns "Just a coincidence I received $10,000 from Azerbaijan lobbying and
then shortly after tries to pass a resolution in Tennessee about Azerbaijan.

 http://www.newschannel5.com/story/25530882/lawmaker-says-10k-contribution-resolution-just-coincidence

by Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A lawmaker's $10,000 campaign contribution and a resolution he introduced this year in the legislature are reviving questions about foreign influences on Tennessee's Capitol Hill.

Last year, NewsChannel 5 Investigates first revealed how advocates for foreign countries were taking your lawmakers on expensive junkets.

Now, we've discovered a case of mysterious donors handing out money for a legislative campaign.

During a hurried legislative session dominated by all sorts of contentious issues, state Rep. Joe Towns found time to introduce a House resolution -- HR 145 -- calling for national support for the country of Azerbaijan.

"Let me tell you where it came from -- it actually came from friends that I know that are from Azerbaijan," the Memphis Democrat told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

An oil-rich, predominantly Muslim country -- where Eastern Europe meets western Asia -- Azerbaijan has been involved in a decades-old dispute with the predominantly Christian country of Armenia over territory that both countries claim.

Towns said he agreed to introduce the resolution because Azerbaijan is a U.S. ally.

"You did not just come up with this one your own?" we asked.

"No, no, no," Towns answered.

"And you knew nothing about the conflict between these two countries?"

"No, I did not."

But Armenian immigrant Barry Barsoumian said, "Those brutal people, they are trying to change history by going around different states in the United States passing resolutions."

Barsoumian discovered Towns' resolution and could not believe anyone would ask a Tennessee lawmaker to help a country known for its human rights abuses and whose leader is seen as one of the world's most corrupt.

"I asked him if it was Azerbaijani Embassy. He denied it," Barsoumian recalled. "But he wouldn't name or tell me what organization was behind it."

But NewsChannel 5 Investigates looked at Towns' campaign reports and discovered he introduced the resolution just two weeks after he got a total of $10,000 in campaign contributions from people out of Texas with ties to the Azerbaijani community.

"This one was probably in Texas, Houston," Towns said, looking at his campaign disclosure.

"You had a fundraiser in Houston?" we asked.

"Uh-huh. I've had fundraisers in other places before. That's true."

"Who hosted that fundraiser?"

"Well, my friends. Friends of mine."

NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "Who in particular?"

"Well, I don't want to get involved in their names because this is about me," Towns answered. "I don't want to talk about their names and who they were."

Still, our investigation discovered that a Turkish-Azerbaijani cultural center in Houston appears to be the common connection for all seven of the contributors, who reportedly gave either $1,000 or $1,500 each to Towns' campaign.

"Did the people who gave you the $10,000 ask you to introduce this resolution?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Towns.

"No, they didn't. Did not," he responded.

"It's purely coincidental?"

"Oh, of course."

But Barsoumian called it "suspicious [that] somebody in Tennessee would introduce a bill for Azerbaijan and then those organizations funnel money to his campaign."

One of the contributors listed on Towns' campaign report as having given a thousand dollars first told us, "That's wrong information. I don't know anyone from Tennessee."

Later he changed his story, saying "I remember something like that. I never met him. I did it through my friends, my community."

Adding to the mystery: almost a third of the money supposedly came from two people who live in an apartment in one of Houston's roughest neighborhoods.

In fact, we identified $13,000 in contributions in the last two years to various candidates around the country from just one low-rent apartment.

So we went back to Representative Towns.

"Does that strike you as odd?" we asked.

"See, in order for me to know that," he responded, "I would have to know the lay of the land down there, the people. I don't know. I don't know."

But when Towns' resolution came up in committee, members of the Armenian community had already lobbied other lawmakers to kill the bill.

The resolution never even got a vote -- a strange end to what some consider a strange piece of legislation.

NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Towns, "You attend a fundraiser and then suddenly you are introducing this resolution. Do you understand why someone might be suspicious?"

"I can't deal with people's suspicion," he said. "I don't address their suspicion. The fact is that it happens all the time."

Some of the contributors appear to have connections to groups who've taken Tennessee officials on free trips to Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Towns was supposed to go on one of those trips last year, but he wasn't able to go.

Still, he did sponsor another House resolution that essentially accused Armenia of war crimes.

That resolution actually passed the House on a 93-0 vote.

So why would Azerbaijan care about what the Tennessee House thinks about world affairs?

It appears to be part of an orchestrated PR campaign to show that world opinion is on their side.

Towns said that he hopes it leads to better understanding of all the countries in that region.

Email: pwilliams@newschannel5.com

Related story:

Turkish Groups Offer Free Foreign Trips For Lawmakers

Gulen Schools in Azerbaijan ordered closed - All that Azerbaijan lobbying a waste of money

Gulen started his schools in the oil rich country of Azerbaijan some 20 years ago.  More correctly we should say the CIA Gladio B operation used the Gulen schools to infiltrate the politics, oil, education of Azerbaijan.  This was to gain a strong foothold in the Central Asia and Caucaus countries to destabilize the interests of Russia and China.  President Aliyev isn't so much about being anti-Gulen as he is CIA and their terrorism sponsored thirst for oil.  3 days before ISIS invaded Iraq, the Gulen Turkish schools were vacated.  More on that later. 

 

Azerbaijan's government-run energy company has announced that private schools formerly run by a movement led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have been closed down.

From February to April, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) took over dozens of private high schools, university exam preparation centers and universities run by a Turkish education company called Çağ Ögretim which is allegedly linked with the Gülen movement.
   
SOCAR announced June 18 that it decided to close these schools, which had been operated by the company now known as Azerbaijan International Education Center, due to high maintenance costs and difficulties in project management.

Turkish government accuses Gülen-led 'Hizmet' (Service) movement of forming a shadow structure within the Turkish state and of plotting to topple the government.

In March, Azeri media reported that Azerbaijan sacked Elnur Aslanov, head of President İlham Aliyev's Political Analysis and Information Department, accusing him of having links with the movement.

Newspapers had said Gülen's network had also infiltrated state institutions in Azerbaijan and found cohorts among some politicians.

June/19/2014

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/azerbaijan-shuts-down-gulen-linked-schools.aspx?pageID=238&nID=67988&NewsCatID=356

 

From Turkish Press

http://www.turkishpress.com/news/411828/

 

From Haberler news

http://en.haberler.com/azerbaijan-shuts-down-gulen-linked-schools-472091/

 

From Daily Sabah (Erdogan AKP leaning news) http://www.dailysabah.com/education/2014/06/19/gulenaaffiliated-schools-in-azerbaijan-face-closure

 

BREAKING

GÜLEN-AFFILIATED SCHOOLS IN AZERBAIJAN FACE CLOSURE

·         Daily Sabah

·         Updated : 19.06.2014 14:55:07

 

Schools and educational institutions affiliated with the Gülen Movement in Azerbaijan have been closed due to numerous reasons including additional costs, financial problems and management issues.

The closure was announced by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) which has in the past year acquired schools owned by the Gülen Movement called Çağ Öğretim İşletme (Çağ Educational Enterprise). The Azerbaijani International Education Center (UEM) had a meeting and decided that the operation of schools would be a financial burden for them.

Thirteen branches of prep schools, 10 high schools, one gymnasium and Kafkas University used to be a part of the Çağ Educational Enterprise. SOCAR has said that the institutions will continue their operations until the exams for higher education institutions are finalized. Moreover, it was stated that the students and staff at these institutions would be transferred to other schools and institutions until the upcoming school year.

A letter leaked online earlier this month revealed Gülenists' financial power and influence in Azerbaijan. In the letter, a follower presented a "financial report" of the movement's activities in Azerbaijan for 2013 to the movement's U.S.-based leader Fethullah Gülen.

The report shows that the movement controls assets of over $2 million (TL 4.28 million) in the country and "presented gifts to influential people in Azerbaijan" worth $732,000, implying bribery, as well as expenses for "friends in state agencies." The letter states that the movement has trouble transferring finances to Turkey "for obvious reasons," possibly referring to the fallout between the government and the movement, and asks for Gülen's advice on the matter.

The Gülen Movement is an influential group that evolved from a religious congregation to a network of followers united by anti-government ambitions. It operates schools in numerous countries around the world, including Azerbaijan. Following the Dec. 17 operation, during which Gülenists launched a campaign against the government under the guise of a graft probe, the government moved to purge members of the organization in state and government agencies.

According to unconfirmed media reports, the administration in Azerbaijan, which maintains close ties with Turkey, allegedly sacked a senior presidential adviser to President Ilham Aliyev over his ties to Gülenists and launched a probe into the activities of Gülenists in Azerbaijan. Currently there is a case investigating the Gülen Movement's involvement in the infiltration of state institutions and media sources claim witnesses pour in to the courts to give testimony about their experience.

It is expressed that a number of witnesses, some of whom are senior police chiefs and military officers of the Turkish Armed Forces request to remain anonymous and they give crucial information about the movement's connections with public services and institutions. Three prosecutors in the Counter terrorism Department collect and record the information and files given by witnesses while some claim Fethullah Gülen who is the leader of the movement could be facing extradition charges in the case that he is convicted