‘Official Partners’ of Azerbaijan’s COP29 Climate Summit Linked To Ruling Aliyev Family and Their Inner Circle
Whether it’s Silk Way West Airlines, the PASHA Holding conglomerate, or fabric company GILTEX — everywhere this...
In the run-up to this year’s COP29 event, we’re reporting on the summit itself.
For example, did you know that nearly every official Azerbaijani partner of the COP29 — whether the Silk Way airline or the Azersun food producer — has some tie to the country’s ruling family?
Watch this space — there are more stories to come.
Whether it’s Silk Way West Airlines, the PASHA Holding conglomerate, or fabric company GILTEX — everywhere this...
Whether it’s mining, banking, hospitality, or construction, there is hardly a major industry in Azerbaijan that hasn't been dominated by the ruling Aliyev family and their allies.
OCCRP has reported on how the family profited from a currency collapse, how it sought to buy Kyrygz gold fields, and how it appeared to siphon off a staggering $1 billion from the acquisition of a telecom company.
So it’s little surprise that over 20 years of rule has brought the Aliyevs fantastic wealth. Data from the bombshell Panama Papers investigation in 2016 revealed how the family used offshore structures and multiple layers of ownership to secretly hold a fortune.
And in 2021, the Pandora Papers investigation showed that the Aliyevs and several close associates had acquired $700 million worth of property in London. At the age of 11, President Aliyev’s son owned an entire office building. OCCRP even published a virtual walking tour of their assets. Read these stories for more.
A vast network of offshore companies, administered by service provider Trident Trust and fronted by a small group...
Having opened bank accounts with Credit Suisse, Barclays, and other foreign banks, Rza and Seymur Talibov received...
Described as the “main player for almost all megaprojects” in Azerbaijan, the AAC plant is publicly associated...
U.K. investigators tied Izzat Khanim Javadova, known as Mikaela Jav, and her husband to the Azerbaijani...
As head of Azerbaijan’s parliament for 14 years, Oktay Asadov received a modest official salary. So how did his...
Taxpayers in Azerbaijan lost more than US$ 600 million in a deal that made no sense for all involved except for a...
From a distance, Azerbaijan may look like any other oil-rich country. Its capital Baku shines at night, thanks to...
The First Family of Azerbaijan has taken control of some of the country’s richest gold, copper and silver deposits...
As head of security for Azerbaijan’s president, Baylar Eyyubov is closely trusted by one of the world’s most...
In a surprise move, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank devalued the national currency, the manat, in 2015. But was...
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has spent billions on capturing the world’s attention to the European Games...
Seven kilometers west of Moscow along the Rublyevo-Uspenskoye Highway, a three-meter-high green metal fence cuts...
As human rights groups have pointed out, modern Azerbaijan — ruled by the Aliyev family since its independence from the Soviet Union — has never held a single fair election. On one memorable occasion, “vote tallies” from a presidential contest were published before the polls had even opened.
The regime maintains its dominance thanks in part to its ruthless suppression of independent journalism — crackdowns that have ruined lives, torn apart families, and enabled a wider range of unchallenged human rights abuses.
Earlier this year, we reported how a group of independent journalists was jailed on absurd charges ahead of February’s presidential election. Earlier, we showed how dissidents have been targeted with super-advanced Israeli spyware.
We’ve reported how Nakhchivan, an especially secretive region ruled like a personal fiefdom by an Aliyev ally, is akin to a little North Korea in the heart of the Caucasus.
And our ‘Slaves to Progress’ project exposed how a group of foreign laborers was forced to work, against their will, for a company that built some of the Azerbaijani capital’s newest event venues — at the behest of a minister whose wife co-owned it. Read more below.
Fresh off his latest victory against neighboring Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev is sweeping Azerbaijan clean of...
In the autonomous Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, Vasif Talibov’s word is law. He has ruled over the isolated...
For the first time, forensic evidence shows that powerful Israeli spyware from notorious cyber-surveillance...
Tens of thousands of people were going hungry — but the International Red Cross faced growing obstacles as it...
Khadija Ismayilova knew she didn’t have to go to prison. But in her mind, her only other option was to exile...
On her first day of freedom, between CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and the Voice of America, Khadija Ismayilova made...
A letter was just received from journalist Khadija Ismayilova, confined in Azerbaijan.
President Ilham Aliyev said recently that Azerbaijan’s selection as COP29 host was “a sign of respect from the international community,” describing it as a “big honor” for his country.
Improving its international reputation is indeed among the regime’s priorities. Aside from major international events like COP29, the European games, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, it has also recruited others for its cause.
OCCRP has reported on American lobbyists who sang the regime’s praises and took its money and an oil and gas consultant who received mysterious financial transfers from Azerbaijan even as he helped organize a pro-regime conference for nearly a dozen members of congress.
That money, reporters found, had been sent through the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a network of offshore companies that helped move billions of dollars out of the country on behalf of Azerbaijan’s elite. Some was spent on luxurious purchases; some filled the pockets of influential people on the world stage.
A U.S. firm that lobbied for Azerbaijan received money from the Laundromat. So did European politicians, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the husband of a senior U.N. official.
When I saw former Rep. Dan Burton’s column about wonderful Azerbaijan in the Washington Times today, I wanted to...
In May of 2013, the government of Azerbaijan, via its State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), injected $750,000...
To see how foreign interests distort reality to steer political debate and influence American foreign policy, look...
The rise of Brenda Shaffer as a scholar and oft-quoted expert in the field of energy politics illustrates just how...
A purportedly private Azerbaijani organization paid over a million and a half dollars to a US firm to lobby for...
A quarter-million dollars from the Azerbaijani Laundromat went to a US energy consultant of Azerbaijani origin...
From 2012 to 2014, even as the Azerbaijani government made wholesale arrests of activists and journalists, members...
A group of parliamentarians in the Council of Europe is calling for an investigation into reports that Azerbaijan...