How Azerbaijan is 'peacewashing' its image ahead of COP 29

A year ago, Azerbaijan attacked and took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region — a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan — displacing more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in a violent military operation many have called ethnic cleansing.

A year later, almost to the day after the invasion began, Azerbaijan announced a “COP 29 Truce,” calling for a cessation of all hostilities around the world during the climate summit it is hosting in November.

While Azerbaijan swears its “COP Truce” is not just a “cynical PR stunt,” its $4.7 million contract with a public relations firm suggests otherwise.

In just one day, the PR firm, Teneo Strategy, treated three journalists to dinner at a five-star hotel restaurant in Nagorno-Karabakh during a media forum. The very next day, one of them celebrated Azerbaijan’s newly established control of the region in an article published in Pakistan. A few weeks later, he tweeted that Azerbaijan is “lucky to have such a leader” in President Ilham Aliyev.

Teneo Strategy has a tall order: making a warring petrostate look like Mother Teresa. But the PR firm has embraced the “flood the zone” mantra to great effect, contacting 144 journalists in 88 different global media outlets some 500 times to promote Azerbaijan’s COP 29 agenda — including its peace-seeking narrative.

According to disclosures under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, the COO of COP 29, Narmin Jarchalova, brought on Teneo to “establish the COP29's communications function, including narrative development, initial content development, communications and engagement campaign planning, issues management, organizational development, establishing media relations capability, and media training.” At least five Teneo executives are always on the ground in Baku — racking up a tab of $350,000 on airfare and hotels to date.

Teneo sent out embargoed copies of the COP29 agenda to journalists, including what it called the COP Truce Appeal: “COP29 will seek to maintain a focus on the importance of both preventing conflict and supporting some of the most vulnerable populations.” "Our approach to the peace agenda is to live by example," said Hikmat Hajiyev, a top advisor to President Aliyev.

But Azerbaijan and Armenia have yet to sign a peace agreement, and there’s evidence the conflict is still simmering. Azerbaijan reportedly killed four Armenian soldiers inside of Armenian territory in February. This is why some have labeled Azerbaijan’s “COP Truce” idea as “peacewashing.”

Artin Dersimonian, a Junior Research Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute and coauthor of a Quincy Institute brief on Azerbaijan’s influence in the U.S., told RS that it's odd for Azerbaijan to tout the region as a success story given that tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Armenia. “Baku’s framing is contradictory because the two sides have not yet formally established interstate relations or peace, and it doesn't seem terribly likely that they will do that to any meaningful extent before the summit.”

Azerbaijan has become notorious for flaunting its oil wealth to court foreign officials, lawmakers, and journalists with gifts, free flights, and luxury hotels, dubbed “caviar diplomacy.” The Azerbaijan government paid for a trip to Azerbaijan last year for two aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams — who himself was indicted last week for luxury trips and a straw-donor scheme orchestrated by the Turkish government, a close ally of Azerbaijan.

Officials from other states have taken Baku up on its generosity, too. According to a trip itinerary obtained by RS via a Freedom of Access Act Request, state lawmakers from Maine spent nine days in Azerbaijan in May with flights, food, and lodging paid for by the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the same agency that hosted Adams’ aides. Part of the itinerary included two days learning about “new development after liberation from occupation” in Nagorno-Karabakh. “Guess I should locate my passport. I am very excited!” wrote State Representative Jill Duson in response to the invitation. In June, Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington even hired former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) in part to coordinate congressional delegation visits to Azerbaijan.

The Friedlander Group, a firm retained by Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, is leading the charge on Capitol Hill in Washington. An email obtained by RS shows that the firm sent an email on September 23 to members of Congress asking them not to sign onto a congressional letter calling for Baku to release Armenian prisoners ahead of COP29. “On top of it, we owe Azerbaijan praise, an apology and an open hand,” wrote the firm’s CEO, Ezra Friedlander.*

However, FARA disclosures suggest that Teneo has become the key cog in Azerbaijan’s COP29 media relations operation.

When Azerbaijan flew out some 300 foreign journalists to the newly-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region for a media forum in July, Teneo held meetings and hosted expensive dinners — during which it discussed interviews with Azerbaijan’s COP leadership team.

“They are aiming for quantity over quality. With more than 1,000 people going on these trips, their goal is a handful that eat the caviar and remain loyal,” said Rasmus Canbäck, an investigative journalist at the Swedish online platform Blankspot, during a phone interview with RS.

During a press trip to Baku, Teneo met with Frank Kane, Editor-at-Large of Arab Gulf Business Insight (AGBI). Kane later remarked that the COP29 organizers should be prepared for an unprecedented level of ignorance and prejudice against Azerbaijan; “They will attack you on perceived corruption, human rights, and geopolitics—the myth of Azerbaijan aggression.” Three days after meeting with Teneo, the influential Indian newspaper, The Hindu, published an article titled “Climate conference in November to emphasise ‘peace’ and ‘truce.’” The firm also facilitated a New York Times article featuring Babayev in Azerbaijan that was based in part on a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Teneo was a natural fit for Azerbaijan’s COP 29 “peacewashing” campaign. The company, which owns a majority stake in the Biden administration’s darling consulting firm WestExec, was fresh off of a contract advising the UAE’s state-owned renewable energy company. The UAE had appointed Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to lead the COP28 climate summit — sparking an outcry over the UAE’s environmental and human rights records. Teneo was brought in at the last minute to help soften the reputational damage, eventually pocketing over $1.5 million for its work.

Most of the 17-person COP29 team began its work in February, but Teneo didn’t formally register under FARA until June. Parties have a 10-day window to register, and, according to FARA’s regulations, they “may not begin to act as an agent of a foreign principal before registering,” so it’s unclear why Teneo’s registration occurred months after its work began. A Teneo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

With just over a month to go until the summit, however, Teneo’s client appears satisfied with its PR blitz.

Babayev, COP29’s president, boasted on an Azerbaijani state-controlled television program about the government’s media strategy to change international perceptions of Azerbaijan as a success story, including its “restoration of territorial integrity,” referring to its offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. Without mentioning Teneo by name, he credited a new media team “consisting of serious specialists.”

“Thanks to the work of this professional team, there has not been a week this year when we have not provided information and made statements to international media…Now they all understand and see the strength of our country," he concluded.

In a warning to fellow journalists ahead of the summit, Canbäck, the Blankspot journalist, said “Remember, the caviar served at dinner signals an expectation of loyalty upon your return home.”

The media, it would seem, is helping itself to the caviar.

*Editor's note: this story has been corrected to reflect that the Friedlander Group had filed its Sept. 23 email under FARA within the mandated 48-hour timeframe.