DW: Azerbaijan's bribing of German MPs a blow to Merkel's party?

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Azerbaijani authorities tried to compensate for the lack of connections in Berlin by bribing German lawmakers, and the scandal that has now broken out casts doubt on the success of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative alliance in upcoming elections, Deutsche Welle says in an article.

The elections, scheduled for the last Sunday of September, will mark the end of Merkel's era as she will be leaving politics after that.

The Azerbaijani embassy in Berlin has refused to comment on the story of bribery of Bundestag deputies, although it is one of the most notorious political scandals in Germany in recent years, as a result of which several lawmakers from the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) were forced to resign. Among them is the chairman of the German-Belarusian parliamentary group, Mark Hauptmann.

According to Norman Loeckel, an expert with the Berlin branch of Transparency International, the Azerbaijani authorities bribed German MPs in an attempt to improve their image in Europe as the country is known for human rights violations and restrictions on the work of independent media.

"Azerbaijan has long been known both in Germany and in other European countries for similar methods of lobbying – unlike, for example, Russia, which uses a wide network of connections, Azerbaijan does not have such connections to rely on," says the expert. "Therefore, Azerbaijan uses direct cash payments to achieve its goals."

Bundestag member from the Social Democrats Frank Schwabe is convinced the scandalous resignations have proved the effect to be exactly the opposite.

"Whoever in Azerbaijan came up with this, the plan has failed miserably. Because now it has become clear that this country not only violates human rights and is not a democracy in our understanding of the word, but also bribes deputies in other countries, which is far from the best characteristics," the lawmaker said.

In 2018, thirteen members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) were thrown out of the organization for accepting gifts and bribes from the Azerbaijani government while a 14th was allowed continue to serve, according to a report released by the Rules of Procedure Committee.

The European Stability Initiative (ESI) think tank raised concerns about Azerbaijan’s role in the Council of Europe in a 2012 report on “caviar diplomacy,” or Azerbaijan’s attempts to silence PACE criticism of the country in exchange for gifts and money.