BP and Amoco behind coup installing Aliyev as president of Azerbaijan

by our correspondent
[Crescent International, May 16-31, 2000.]

Turkish secret service documents recently cited in British newspapers accuse BP and Amoco, the two western companies that dominate the Azerbaijani oil scene, of involvement in the military coup that ousted the country’s elected president Abdulfaz Elchibey, and installed Hayder Aliyev, a former KGB operative, only two years after the country gained its ‘independence’ from the Soviet Union in 1991.

One document says: "As a result of our intelligence efforts it has been understood that two petrol giants, BP and Amoco, British and American respectively, which together form the AIOC (Azerbaijani International Oil Consortium), are behind the coup d’etat carried out against Abdulfaz Elchibey in 1993..."

BP (British Petroleum) took the initial step when, through intermediaries, it bought off key members of the government just before the coup. The idea was to steal a march on the other western companies and the Russians in the battle for Azerbaijan’s huge reserves of oil and gas, estimated at 200 billion barrels of top-quality crude. The cut-throat competition for this largesse turned Baku, the Azeri capital, into a American-style boomtown, as the British newspaper report citing the Turkish intelligence secret service described it. "BP’s development teams flocked to Baku...which soon turned into a wild west boomtown of intrigue and fast bucks where oil executives rubbed shoulders with Azeri mafia," the report said.

Soon after the coup, BP’s middlemen arranged to supply the new government with military equipment in what was described as an "arms-for-oil" deal. The move was designed to "consolidate BP’s position" with the new regime, according to one secret service agent.

Only a few months later, BP secured the leadership of the consortium of western companies that dominate the oil scene in the country. The £5 billion contract–– described as "the contract of the century" was signed by Hayder Aliyev. BP and Amoco merged in 1998 and now have a virtual monopoly of rights to exploit Azerbaijan’s oil wealth.

Both BP and Amoco deny paying bribes or supplying arms but admit that they were approached by Azeri intermediaries. The newspaper report quotes BP as admitting that it was asked to pay $360 million to the top Azeri official appointed by Aliyev to lead the "oil talks". And Roddy Kennedy, BP and Amoco’s spokesman, denies that his company paid bribes or supplied arms, while admitting that it was asked to pay bribes by Marat Manafov, Aliyev’s right-hand man. Manafov, a Slovenian, disappeared six months ago after accusing the Aliyev family of having "secret dealings with oil companies". Police in Slovenia have launched an investigation into his disappearance, treating it as murder.

The denials cannot be taken at face value as both BP and Amoco are known for adventurism and intervention in the affairs of ‘third world’ countries in which they have ‘strategic interests’. BP, for example, was accused three years ago of supplying arms and training to the Colombian army, which was engaged in well-documented human rights violations. The company admitted supplying military equipment but typically denied any wrongdoing. Last year it was criticised by a select committee of the British Parliament for maintaining too cosy a relationship with the Colombian military.

Both companies also have a reputation for working closely with their country’s intelligence organizations. BP, for example, now employs several former MI6 officers. It is therefore, understandable that company officials and Aliyev, a former KGB senior officer, should find each other congenial company and plot together for mutual gain.

Aliyev had been warmly congratulated by both London and Washington on becoming president, and was given red-carpet treatment during his state visits to the two capitals. The Azeri president was warmly greeted by the British prime minister, Tony Blair, when he visited London in 1998 to sign a friendship treaty and contracts worth $13 billion with BP and other British firms. Blair (whose government claims to pursue an ethical foreign policy, and to support democratic regimes in the ‘developing world’) apparently had no inhibitions about endorsing a former KGB operative brought to power by a military coup.

But although the western consortium and governments, and Aliyev, may have ample cause to celebrate, Azerbaijan is a land-locked country and third parties will have to be dealt with to secure the shipment of the oil and gas to the outside world. The only oil-route open to them was the pipeline from Baku to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossysk, which previously passed through Chechenya. The war there meant a prolonged suspension of oil shipments and considerable loss to the oil companies as well as Azerbaijan. Now the Russians say that they have completed refurbishing the pipeline, which now by-passes Chechnya, and Baku is preparing to resume oil exports.