Exclusive
Status: 06/28/2021 7:58 a.m.
In the Azerbaijan affair, the main accused was in an interview with the SWR first voiced the allegation of bribery of parliamentarians. The ex-CSU MP Lintner confirms donations from Baku, but no corruption.
At the center of the public prosecutor’s investigations into the Azerbaijan affair is Eduard Lintner, a former CSU member of the Bundestag from Münnerstadt in the Bad Kissingen district. The main issue is allegations of bribery against members of the Bundestag and the Council of Europe. In the past few months, several offices of MPs had been searched in the course of the investigation. The suspicion: They are said to have received money so that they can act in the interests of the Azerbaijan regime in political votes.
According to the prosecutor, Lintner received at least four million euros from Azerbaijan. in the ARD-Interview he says: “We received monthly allowances and for this we rented, equipped, maintained and hired an expensive office in Berlin’s government district, so that in the end not too much is left.”
Unilateral claim to Nagorno-Karabakh
The Azerbaijan contacts arose in the Council of Europe. Lintner was sent to the parliamentary assembly as a German member of parliament. There he had a conversation with Azerbaijani MPs who were looking for support for a central concern of the former Soviet republic: the annexation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was partly occupied by Armenia and partly aimed at its own statehood. According to Lintner, this demand of the Azerbaijani leadership joined in because it “was unproblematic under international law”.
In fact, Azerbaijan had long since agreed to a peaceful solution to the conflict and to negotiations with Armenia and the predominantly Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh.
No memory of money for fishermen
By doing ARD-Interview admits Lintner that money has been distributed to other politicians and institutions through companies he runs. It is certain that the recently deceased CDU politician Karin Strenz received money from Azerbaijan through Lintner. She was noticed when she voted against the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in the Council of Europe.
The Karlsruhe member of the Bundestag Axel E. Fischer is also said to have received money in this way. His offices have also been searched by the public prosecutor. The investigations are still ongoing. Written inquiries from ARD left Fischer unanswered. Lintner said he couldn’t remember whether Fischer received Azerbaijani money as well.
Gerald Knaus from the organization “European Stability Initiative” was one of the first to research the Azerbaijan connection and possible bribery. He considers Lintner’s statement to be implausible. “Axel Fischer was one of the most important players in this world of the Council of Europe. The idea that Mr. Lintner has been omitted, whether this Axel Fischer also received money, is not very credible.”
Private election observers in contradiction to the OSCE
Lintner also organized several so-called “election observer trips” to Azerbaijan. Among others, Strenz and Fischer were there. The accusation: These trips primarily served the purpose of giving the elections a democratic appearance in the interests of the regime. And this despite the fact that independent election observation organizations and the OSCE have repeatedly shown that there are neither free nor fair elections in Azerbaijan. But Lintner’s “election observers” always came to the conclusion that the votes met “democratic standards”. These statements were circulated in the state-controlled media in Azerbaijan and used by the regime.
Embassy asked for an inquiry to the federal government
To SWR-Research, there were other members of the Bundestag who were conspicuously offensive in advocating the interests of the Azerbaijani regime. The CDU MPs Olav Gutting, Eberhard Gienger and Nikolas Löbel traveled to Azerbaijan several times and always made positive comments about the country.
In 2019, they also put a parliamentary question with Fischer on the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The four MPs submitted their questions separately – but with exactly the same text. To SWR-Research, the initiative came directly from the Azerbaijani embassy in Berlin.
In an email sent to several members of the Bundestag by an embassy employee on September 16, 2019, reference was made to an alleged “aggressive statement” by the Armenian Prime Minister on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Literally it says: “We would be very happy if you followed this matter […] and examine possible reactions of the Bundestag to the Armenian approach. ”
The human rights expert Knaus criticizes that the Azerbaijan affair is far from being resolved. He calls for further, international studies on this. While the public prosecutor’s investigations continue in Germany, Lintner remains convinced that he has not made any mistakes: “I do not feel corrupted or corrupt.”
The ARD documentary “The Azerbaijan Connection – the useful German helpers of the Aliyev regime” runs on Monday at 9.45 pm on the first.