The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands prepared a report on Azerbaijan in September. It is a 99-page report on the socio-political situation in Azerbaijan in 2021. The unprofessional nature of the report is justified, but it specifically slanders Ganimat Zahid.
The slander is as follows: “In 2015, the pro-government newspaper Kaspi published an article about the sale of fake documents to immigrants by Ganimat Zahid, a journalist currently living in France. It is impossible to say anything about the fact, as no criminal case has been filed in Azerbaijan and France on this issue”.
Perhaps he did not imagine that the issue would become so serious when the Foreign Ministry circulated this slander.
What is the issue that is becoming more serious?
First of all, the pro-government media began to spread this slander, which was circulated by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, as if it was confirmed by a more serious source.
We, of course, began to correspond with the Dutch Foreign Ministry, as well as with Elwin Moenkers, one of the authors of the report, and reminded them that the reprint of this slander would damage their reputation and, in particular, another fake accusation against Ganimat Zahid. We, of course, demand that they remove this slander from their reports. We also present these correspondences to you so that we will not remain silent in front of whoever slanders him.
Elwin Moenkers : «The general country of origin information report on Azerbaijan of September 2021 is based on the questions and points of focus in the Terms of Reference drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and Security. The Terms of Reference for this report were defined on 15 March 2021. An anonymized version of the final version of the Terms of Reference, together with the general country of origin information report, has been published on the website of the Dutch Government (Rijksoverheid.nl).
The text in the report on page 28 about the accusations that were made by the pro-government media in Azerbaijan against you is an answer to question number 2.1.3 of the Terms of Reference. It does certainly not follow from the text in the report that there is slander on the part of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This text is not an assessment by the ministry. It is a reproduction of what is available from the open sources”.
Mr Elwin Moenkers claims or acknowledges that this is not the position of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, “we are simply posting facts we have taken from open sources”. We wrote back to them that, They take and share these “facts” not from open sources, but from fabricated sources, so you must deny and apologize. They are still busy with their bureaucracies, and we are continuing our activities.
How could the Dutch Foreign Ministry read the “Kaspi” newspaper? Azerbaijanis do not read the Kaspi newspaper. However, the article claimed by the Foreign Ministry was published in the Kaspi newspaper on July 25, 2015. According to the article, “Ganimat Zahid, who lives in exile, began to miss his relatives. Since he could not come here and see them, he planned to take the Zahidovs to him. Recently, 3 close relatives of the person were detained by the police for various illegal actions and received short-term administrative detention … “.
This is the case when Ganimat Zahid’s close relatives were arrested on false drug charges and sentenced to more than six years in prison, although the public knew that Zahidov had nothing to do with drugs. They were recognized as political prisoners and released 1.5 years later. It was a fact that these people were arrested to take revenge on Ganimat Zahid or to silence him. During the incident, more than 30 police officers were sent to search the house of Ganimat Zahid’s 85-year-old mother in the village, and confiscated the computer she used to communicate with her son via Skype. (Not returned yet).
It is clear that the Dutch do not read the Kaspi newspaper. Apparently, there are Azerbaijanis who passed these materials to the Dutch Foreign Ministry in a distorted way. Who are they?
Why does the Dutch Foreign Ministry work with so many raw and biased partners? The Foreign Ministry does not give up its partners, and will probably continue to work with them for some time. This is the softest option that comes to mind.
Another version is the caviar diplomacy that has enveloped Europe. It is no coincidence that caviar diplomacy can falsify even a World Bank project such as Doing Business at the expense of bribes of Azerbaijani origin. We have not yet written any other relevant and exposed facts.
We see traces of caviar diplomacy in this report of the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Either the authors of the report are victims of this caviar diplomacy, or those who send “facts” for the report. Maybe the Dutch embassy in Azerbaijan. The embassy has moved its operations to Ankara, but there are those who say that Ambassador Pauline Eizema has warm and friendly relations with the Aliyev regime.
Why was the extension of caviar diplomacy in the Netherlands led to the circulation of a slander, not to mention Ganimat Zahid? We will have research in this regard and find and present the truth.
We have many questions for the Dutch Foreign Ministry and the authors of this report, but so far there are no reasonable answers. This situation cannot last long.
Either the Foreign Ministry should apologize for correcting its mistake and spreading slander about Ganimat Zahid, or we will try to ensure this in court.
The lawsuit between the Dutch Foreign Ministry and an Azerbaijani political immigrant and journalist living in France will take a long time, but it is worth it.
“Azadlig” newspaper
