One of the reasons for the expansion of the anti-COP29 campaign was the involvement of companies specializing in PR and negative image formation, reads a report of the Azerbaijani parliamentary commission on countering foreign interference and hybrid threats, Report informs.
It was revealed that wealthy businessmen like David Vardanyan (son of Ruben Vardanyan) and Noubar Afeyan used financial resources and personal connections to organize hybrid attacks against Azerbaijan.
“The Vardanyan-Afeyan duo’s tactics in the anti-Azerbaijan campaign were based on attracting well-known PR companies, Hollywood stars, wealthy American businessmen, representatives of influential families, and officials to their projects. Abusing people’s trust, they carried out their activities under the guise of charity through their established Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Foundation and Aurora Prize.”
In particular, Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the Clintons, joined the Aurora Prize selection committee. Among the committee members are individuals engaged in anti-Azerbaijan activities and discrediting COP29 held in Azerbaijan. The parliamentary report indicates that the Vardanyan family engaged PR company Edelman and law firm Perseus Strategies, whose names have appeared in several scandals, for this work.
“Edelman company is running a social media campaign, creating hashtags #FreeRubenVardanyan and #FreeArmenianPrisoners. Their goal is to organize mass attacks against Azerbaijan, securing international support through pressure in the form of petitions and letters, engaging various officials, private organizations, and media structures. On their created website www.freearmenianprisoners.com, to appear convincing, they create an illusion of campaign support for Ruben Vardanyan supposedly from 109 countries, including Azerbaijan. Simply by writing country names and made-up names, they want to create an appearance of mass support.”
The report notes that the appeal “Ruben Vardanyan and other Armenian leaders mark the anniversary of their political imprisonment in Azerbaijan” shows which states and organizations Edelman company works with.
“On this issue, the French PR company Havas also provides special support to the Vardanyan family. Incidentally, an interesting fact about Edelman company, whose name has appeared in many scandals, as proven by The Guardian’s investigation, 10 years ago it provided services to companies denying climate change and global warming,” the report states.
Regarding Perseus Strategies and its leader Jared Genser, besides his anti-Azerbaijan activities as legal counsel to the Vardanyan family, he conducts a broad campaign against Azerbaijan through his international human rights NGO Freedom Now. Freedom Now, joining with other infamous NGOs, has consistently continued anti-COP and anti-Azerbaijan activities. This is confirmed by photos.
Another interesting fact in the Azerbaijani parliamentary report relates to Argentine Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
“He is a member of the International Legal Advisory Board of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights. The Chairman of this organization for America is Perseus Strategies head Jared Genser. At the same time, Argentine billionaire of Armenian descent Eduardo Eurnekian, known as ‘El Armenio’, is the chairman of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation,” the report states.
The document notes that besides the similarity in names between these two organizations, there are also close relationships between their leaders.
“The fact that Ocampo is a compatriot of Eurnekian further increases suspicions. In the last month alone, he made over 120 biased publications against Azerbaijan and COP29 on his X page. It is suspected that these connections are behind Ocampo’s highly aggressive activities against Azerbaijan and COP29 at international events and in media, including social networks, and his preparation of a biased report against our country,” the report states.
It notes that several hashtags were used in the coordinated social media campaign: “Analysis of mainly such hashtags as #COP29, #COPOUT29, #COP29EXPOSED, #COP29Exposed, #BoycottCOP29, #ProtestCOP29!, #FreeRubenVardanyan, #FreeArmenianPrisoners, #FreeArmenianHostages, #EndTheGagRule, #Greenwashing, #StopGreenwashGenocide, #StopWhitewashGenocide and others shows that the campaign is carried out from a single center, especially through profiles connected to persons of Armenian origin.”
In the ANCA-related section of the report, it was already noted that coordinated and mass use of fake accounts was observed by most profiles.
“Fake profiles post automated responses with identical content to COP29-related publications, simultaneously manipulating content through bot systems and thus carrying out actions aimed at misleading public opinion,” the authors write.
