User:Svartalxeym/sandbox

Azerbaijan is considered one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Corruption seems to stand not as a problem for the government to be overcome, but an institutionalized way to run the country. Like a classic authoritarian country, the ruling family controls the most of wealth, distributing it through down-way hierarchy to its subordinates and cronies in order to buy their loyalty and guarantee to suppress any possible dissent. Nearly all government bodies of the country are run through corrupt ways as kleptocracy, embezzlement of funds, favoritism, protectionism, nepotism, cronyism, abuse of office etc., But the ruling regime's main corrupt feature is not simple theft of funds. It corresponds more to forceful appropriation of the wealth relying on repressive law enforcement agencies to which it channels a part of huge sum of money gained through sale of resources, mainly oil, to the western countries, extracted by technical assistance of the BP, Statoil and US oil companies.

The Aliyevs of soviet period and independence

Deep-rooted corruption which paralyzed progress in all spheres in Azerbaijan, is considered to be entrenched from the soviet time. It was intensified under rule of Brezhnev era corrupt leaders, culminating in Heydar Aliyev, the Azeri KGB chief and strongman, who was the first secretary of the Communist party of the soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982. After the soviet collapse, he came back to power as president of an independent Republic of Azerbaijan in 1993-2003, later succeeded by his son, current president Ilham Aliyev. Once considered the most effective and untainted from point of view of professionalism government agency of the Soviet Union, the KGB is especially associated with corruption in the soviet Azerbaijan:

"Soviet rule in the Muslim republics was a politically correct facade which concealed the reality of a population which looked far more to Mecca than to Moscow, ruled by a corrupt political elite whose Marxism-Leninism was often little more than skin deep. Even the local KGBs were, in varying degree, infected by the corruption. The area of the Muslim Caucasus in which KGB control seemed most secure during the 1970s was Azerbaijan. During the previous decade the local Party leader, Muhammad Akhund-Zadeh (his correct name is actually Vali Akhundov), had turned corruption into an instrument of government under which a carefully calibrated system of bribery could purchase everything from university places to queue-jumping for apartments. In 1969, however, the local KGB chief, Geidar Aliyev (Heydar Aliyev's name in Russian transliteration), launched a 'crusade against corruption' which swept Akhund-Zadeh (Akhundov) from office and led to his own appointment as Party boss. During the next decade Aliyev supposedly 'cleansed' Azerbaijani and clamped down on Muslim dissent by putting the republic under what appeared to be direct KGB rule. Baku, the capital and one of the main centres of the Soviet oil industry, became a propaganda showcase for 'advanced socialism during the oil boom of the 1970s. In reality, claims the Pultzer prize-winning journalist David Remnick, 'Aliyev ruled Azerbaijan as surely as the Gambino family ran the port of New York. The Caspian Sea caviar mafia, the Sumgait oil mafia, the fruits and vegetables mafia, the cotton mafia, the customs and transport mafias - they all reported to him, enriched him, worshiped him."

Aliyev was said also engaged in race with Uzbek soviet leader Rashidov, in bribing out Brezhnev with luxury presents:

"Rashidov bought Brezhnev at least half a dozen luxury European sports cars as well as building extravagant hunting lodges for Brezhnev's occasional forays into Uzbekistan. Rashidov also indulged the weakness for diamonds of Brezhnev's daughter, Galina; Brezhnev's son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov, later admitted receiving, among other gifts, a suitcase stuffed with banknotes. Aliyev was not to be outdone. In 1982 he presented Brezhnev with a ring set with a huge jewel, representing him as the Sun King, surrounded by fifteen smaller precious stones representing him as the Union Republics - 'like planets orbiting the sun', Aliyev explained. Overcome by emotion, Brezhnev burst into tears in front of the TV cameras.

Corruption in the Muslim republics was condoned in Moscow. In 1971 Kunayev was elected a full member of the Politburo. With the election of Aliyev in 1982, shortly after Andropov succeeded Brezhnev as Soviet leader, the Politburo had for the first time two full members of Muslim origin, as well as Rashidov as a candidate member. Though Andropov may have detested the Russian of the Brezhnev era, his promotion of Aliyev (whom he made First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Ministers), like his previous disinclination to take action over Rashidov, demonstrates that he had different standards for Muslim regions. It was not until 1983 that Andropov finally confronted Rashidov with evidence of his corruption. Soon afterwards Rashidov died from heart failure - or, according to some accounts, committed suicide. A secret investigation into the 'Uzbek Mafia' revealed what has been described as 'one of the largest cases of public office corruption in contemporary history. It was left to Gorbachev to sack Kunayev and Aliyev in, respectively, 1986 and 1987, and to reveal some (but by no means all) of the investigation into the Uzbek scandal in 1988".

Before coming to power, current president Ilham Aliyev had been mired in casino affair scandal in 1998. It was reported that he had lost in gambling nearly $6 million. During the presidency he became involved with other huge corruption stories. His family's owning hundreds of millions dollar due to acquirement of luxury mansions in Dubai (registered under the name of his 11 years old son), shares in offshore companies, banks, gold mine, communication and construction companies in Azerbaijan, by embezzlement, abuse of office and presidential family privileges, have been covered by the western and local press. But corruption revelations goes uninvestigated as there is no independent judiciary in Azerbaijan and officials dismiss any information accusing them in wrongdoing, citing the sources anonymous or "ungrounded". It is characteristic to the country, as noted:

"Like many authoritarian governments, the Azerbaijani regime is highly insular and opaque. Little information about its inner workings can be fully trusted. Most is obtained through gossip or the small opposition press. The former is often unverifiable; the latter frequently highly filtered, exaggerated or manipulated, reflecting the outlet’s agenda or that of individual members of the ruling elite using it for their purposes".

Presidential Administration

First direct accusation in involvement of political corruption of the highest official of the Office of President, Ramiz Mehdiyev, came through the Gulargate scandal. In a video record disclosed by Elshad Abdullayev, a former university rector and businessman, living in exile, in France, claimed he was going to pay Mehdiyev for a seat in the parliament of Azerbaijan in discussions with Gular Ahmadova, then a member of parliament from ruling New Azerbaijan Party. According to the footage, Ahmadova promised he will gain a mandate of deputy in return of a million dollar or two, as it is widely believed that MPs in Azerbaijan are rather appointed than elected in a popular vote.

A number of government and law enforcement bodies officials, including Ahmadova (while released after a brief serving) were prosecuted and sentenced as a result of video revelations, while Mehdiyev was not touched. Moreover he was awarded with another government title by the president Ilham Aliyev, almost at the wake of the scandal. He is considered as a powerful ally of the latter, wielding great power on law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan. Another high official from the Presidential Administration accused in corruption is Ali Hasanov, National Adviser to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of Department on Social Political Issues. He is said has used his position to get profitable businesses in media and education for his family members.

Ministry of Internal Affairs

Azeri police and its chief agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is considered as one of the most corrupt institutions of the country. It is widely believed that extraction of graft, abuse of office, incompetency and even close involvement with criminal activities are widespread from the top officials to rank and file servicemen in the Azeri police system. It is common wisdom in Azeri society that it is safe to keep aside from police to avoid getting in trouble, rather than to rely on it for protection. Current interior minister Ramil Usubov is one of the longest serving ones in the world. He is also a powerful oligarchs in Azerbaijan using his authority to protect his wealth. The police in Azerbaijan is widely used to suppress opposition against the government, along with other law enforcement agencies. Internal troops of Azerbaijan, officially subordinate to the minister of internal affairs, have spearheaded crushing mass rallies and protests in Azerbaijan.

In March 2005, it was announced that a gang was detained headed by Haji Mammadov, a high-ranking police officer in the Interior Ministry, as a result of the operation by the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan. Haji Mammadov and his gang were accused in high profile murders and kidnappings, including high officials, Rovshan Aliyev and Fatullah Huseynov of the Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor's office and wife of the president of the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

Two generals of the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan, Zahid Dunyamaliyev (exiled lawyer and ex-university dean Elshad Abdullayev later had alleged that he had handed over 3 million US dollar to Dunyamaliyev, the first deputy interior minister, as a ransom for release of his abducted brother in 2003) and Zakir Nasirov lose their posts and the latter was jailed and sentenced to prison as a result of the Haji Mammadov affair. It is speculated that Usubov succeeded to guard his position, hinting that he might expose illegal acts ordered by the former president of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, the late father of the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev. Eldar Mahmudov, who is said had directed the operation against Haji Mammadov's gang, and his deputies, Hilal Asadov and Akif Chovdarov, who have been accused in illegal acts and corruption, also come from the Interior Ministry, the first two of the notoriously corrupt OBKhSS, the former soviet financial police established within the Interior Ministry. The same year, President Ilham Aliyev promoted Vilayat Eyvazov, the head of the organized crime unit of the ministry, the first deputy minister of interior affairs, who had been involved in torture and beatings of the protesters of the 2003 presidential elections result. In 2007, president Ilham Aliyev himself publicy declared that he has not punished his police for excessive use of force despite calls by international organizations in 2005.

Ministry of National Security

A successor of its soviet past, the soviet Azerbaijani KGB, the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan continues to stay corrupt, operating in an arbitrary way without impunity and being unaccountable for its violent and illegal activities. A local Azadlyg newspaper published revelations by Ramin Nagiyev, a former MNS official, living in France in exile, saying the MNS, along with other high law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan (Interior Ministry, Prosecutor General's Office) is heavily plagued with corruption and involved in committing high-profile political murders and cover-ups.

Elshad Abdullayev, an Azerbaijani lawyer and former dean of university, accused high MNS officials, Akif Chovdarov, and a relative of Hilal Asadov, both deputy ministers, in kidnapping and probably murder of his brother, an MNS officer himself. According to the secret US Embassy cables published by WikiLeaks, Chovdarov allegedly was the main person standing behind harassment and attacks against an investigative reporter of the Azadlig, targeting him for corrupt land dealings. With all those accusations, Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, in 2012 promoted Chovdarov to general rank, instead. In 2011, a local technician was found dead with signs of torture at the Ministry of National Security of Nakhchivan, an exclave autonomous republic of Azerbaijan, known as North Korea of Azerbaijan for its notoriously rampant human rights abuses. The MNS accused him of treason for spying for Iran and explained his death caused by cancer. Later, a defector from Nakhchivan escaped to Russia and talked to the local press that the MNS of the exclave region had assigned him to seduce, then kill the widow of the victim in order to prevent her from following the case of the death of her husband.

Azerbaijani journalist Parviz Hashimli, detained by the MNS and later sentenced to jail, apparently on trumped up charges, had declared in his trial that he had been tortured in the MNS detention centre in order to extract confession that he has funneled finance to opposition, coming from high government officials, Ali Nagiyev, former first deputy minister of national security, current head of the anticorruption department under prosecutor general's office. He claimed that it was Elchin Quliyev, MNS general, head of the anti-terror centre of the ministry, who demanded it of him. Hashimli also declared that another MNS official, named as Ilgar Aliyev, threatened him with rape.

An investigative journalist Khadija Ismayil who criticizes the government corruption in Azerbaijan is threatened with arrest over charge of publishing a document alleging the Ministry of National Security blackmailed an opposition figure to turn him into its informer. Ismayilova herself had been targeted with hidden sex tape aired and many suspected it was an operation also conducted by the Ministry to silence a dissent voice against the regime.

Office of the Prosecutor General

Though meant to oversee implementation and apply of laws, along maintaining its corrupt nature inherited from the soviet time, the Prosecutor General's office quickly became a tool for political repression of the government shortly Azerbaijan declared its independence. In 1991-1993 three prosecutors general by following briefly held the post under unstable political conditions after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

One of them, Ismat Gayibov was killed in a helicopter which was shot down by Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. Ikhtiyar Shirin, appointed by the Popular Front government, was captured as an hostage by the rebels against the central rule, then dismissed as a result of the coup staged by them in 1993. Replacing him Ali Omarov, also was sacked by the then president Heydar Aliyev, a year later, as a result of his controversial misbehaving during another coup attempt in 1994, this time against Aliyev. The latter also had accused Omarov for staying in a more expansive hotel than afforded at the expense of public fund in Turkey, in one of his interviews.

Omarov's deputy, Eldar Hasanov, who was appointed to his post in 1995, faced charges of corruption and abuse of office five years later, publicly by Heydar Aliyev himself. Aliyev had announced that Hasanov not only had exceeded his power, but covered up a murder committed by high official of Prosecutor General's office and let him escape the country. However, the sacked Hasanov was not prosecuted, and even sent abroad as an ambassador, a year later.

The longest-serving current prosecutor general Zakir Garalov has not tried to cover political affiliation of the agency, publicly declaring that all protest rallies will be crushed, during the Arab spring inspired activity in Baku in 2011. In the last crackdown on activists the office usually acts together with the Ministry of National Security giving joint statement explaining the arrests as not politically motivated, but for espionage, tax evasions or hooliganism. The main figure involved in arrest and prosecution of the prominent Azerbaijani human rights defenders is Ibrahim Lambaranski, the investigator on special affairs of the Office of the Prosecutor General, a former child movie actor, grandson of the once soviet time mayor of Baku Alish Lambaranski.

Ministry of Defense

Widely boasted by the country leadership for its multi-billion budget and purchase of huge quantity of weapons, in fact, the Azeri military was plagued by endemic corruption and brutal hazing among both the high military officers and rank and file. In order to give an explanation to nearly 70 non-combat deaths of soldiers, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan even has went to declare that a private stabbed his fellow serviceman to death "by accident". Youth activists protesting against army deaths in Azerbaijan in March 2013, have been sentenced up to 8 years prison terms on trumped-up accusations later.

At the wake of the last skirmishes between the Armenian Azerbaijani troops that caused the highest toll of dead since the 1994 ceasefire, an Armenian wanderer was caught by the Azerbaijani villagers and turned over to the militaries who later declared him a spy who was announced dead a day later. The video footages taken by the villagers who interrogated him first showed him unarmed and accounts of women and her son who captured him, said he just asked tea or cigarette from them. After taken by the militaries, another footage described Rovshan Akbarov, an Azeri general and national hero, interrogating him, forced on his knees by two Azeri commandos, in military uniform and boots, apparently put and worn on him by force. A day later, he was announced dead by heart failure.

The US Department of State and French Foreign Ministry voiced their concerns on death of the Armenian in Azerbaijani captivity, while the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry protested both of them, reiterating that Petrosyan was a spy and passed away due to natural causes. A month ago, a captured Azeri man also had been filmed dragged by Armenian masked armed militaries to interrogation, who had been declared as a member of agent group spying in the Armenian controlled territories, along with two others, one later announced dead.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The first minister of foreign affairs of independent Azerbaijan Huseynaga Sadigov, who continued to hold the office after the end of the Soviet Union, is said to be proponent pro-western foreign policy for Azerbaijan, even calling for its NATO membership before official demise of the USSR.

Corruption was not so apparent during his Popular Front nominated Tofig Gasimov's terms who succeeded him in the turmoil of 1992-1993 which saw intensification of political instability and bloody war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

It was Hasan Hasanov, a soviet era ex- Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, serving Heydar Aliyev's foreign minister in 1993-1998, who was announced as the main culprit of the casino affair linked to Turkish organized crime, in which Ilham Aliyev, the son of Heydar Aliyev and current president of Azerbaijan was involved. Heydar Aliyev relieved Hasan Hasanov from his post and he was posted as an ambassador later, without being convicted, rising suspicions that he might be used actually as a scapegoat. Replacing him, Tofig Zulfugarov held the post briefly, in 1998 - 1999. He was said resigned protesting a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on territorial swap, allegedly agreed between Heydar Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan, then heads of state of Azerbaijan and Armenia. However, Zulfugarov was appointed as ambassador of Azerbaijan to Latvia and Estonia, by president Ilham Aliyev in 2005. Another relatively long-serving foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Vilayat Guliyev also was claimed tainted with corruption and incompetency. He was relieved not long after current president Ilham Aliyev succeeded his defunct father, and sent an ambassador as well, in 2004.

Incumbent minister Elmar Mammadyarov's term comes to its tenth year, outscoring all his predecessors in longevity as a foreign minister after the independence of Azerbaijan. Though controlled and under pressure, Azerbaijani press increasingly published materials on Mammadyarov too, accusing him in mismanagement, incompetence and corruption. A letter from former diplomat published in the local Yeni Musavat newspaper, revealed Mammadyarov turning a blind eye to rampant corrupt activities and nepotism in employment to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, mainly linked to his deputy Nadir Huseynov and Elmira Sariajlinskaya, chief of staff department of the ministry. A pro-government news agency, APA, reported on financial misappropriation in the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, citing the investigation conducted by the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan. The latter, however, later issued a statement downplaying the significance of the wrongdoing in the Foreign Ministry, supposedly as a result of behind-scene inter-agencies deal. Another pro-government Azeri MP called Mammadyarov as the "most incompetent minister" in the government, declaring also Azerbaijani ambassadors corrupt officials who use their positions and embassy premises for their own businesses and profit.

State Customs Committee

Various accounts and reports in local press are in abundance on notoriously rampant corruption, abuse of office in the customs authorities and rough treatment by the customs officials of Azerbaijan. The State Customs Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan has long been ruled by fabulously rich Azeri oligarch Kamaladdin Heydarov, now minister of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan. He is still believed to control the Customs Committee through his relatives and proxies who hold high posts there . The Committee is said mainly ruled by the officials born from Nakhchivan, the stronghold of the current Azeri ruling regime . While handpicked by Heydarov as head of Customs, the current chairman of the agency, an Azeri from Georgia, has been engaged in power struggle with powerful Nakhichevani clique within the agency, for control of profit coming through corruption, according to series of reports published in a local news site, seemingly based on leaked information as a result of turf war . In one report, it is revealed that a frontline customs broker company set up by Kamaladdin Heydarov extracts money from businessmen through intimidation, manipulation, monopoly and machinations. An Iranian news network Press TV has published information linking Heydarov to drug smuggling activities.

According to the Azeri daily Azadliq, billions of dollars have been embezzled through the customs authorities by deliberately failing to declare exact number of imported goods into Azerbaijan from Iran and Georgia. The report cited discrepancies between the statements of the Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan in the Iranian press and official information disclosed in the web-pages of the State Customs Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan and State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan. While the Iranian Ambassador had declared bilateral trade turnover between Iran and Azerbaijan nearly one billion, the both state agencies showed the numbers considerably fewer, as around 300 million US dollars. Imports to Azerbaijan through Georgia have been declared nearly 500 hundred million US dollar fewer than its actual volume. Thus, it is estimated that public money siphoned off by Azeri custom authorities amount to billions of US dollars.

In 2013 December, Turkish authorities arrested the head of the Sadarak customs office, in the framework of the operation targeting a ring of officials involved in corrupt activities. However he was later released and extradited to Azerbaijan, allegedly as a result of political deal between the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Another story from the Azeri service of Radio Free Europe said customs official demanded € 3000 (roughly the same Azeri manat equivalent) from a second hand car owner for his car which cost even lower than the fee demanded.