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| Photo: Kommer Damen of Damen Shipyards talking with president Aliyev of Azerbaijan at WEF in Davos source |
Dutch Damen Shipyards considers building military naval vessels
for Azerbaijan, a country that is involved in an arms race with
neighboring Armenia.
Mid Janauary,
Kommer Damen CEO and owner of Damen
Shipyards visited
the WorldEconomic Forum in Davos to strengthen cooperation with
Azerbaijan. He met the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev
personally to discuss construction of military and civilian vessels
and ships for unspecified government tasks, reports Trend
News Agency.
In September 2014, arms fair ADEX was organised in Azeerbaijan. One observer noted: "There seem to have been a lot of shipbuilders and navy-related companies at ADEX; Dutch shipbuilder Damen was the "platinum sponsor" of the show and Chinese and Turkish shipbuilders also exhibited, suggesting they think there is naval business to be had in Azerbaijan." It seems the assumption was correct.
In September 2014, arms fair ADEX was organised in Azeerbaijan. One observer noted: "There seem to have been a lot of shipbuilders and navy-related companies at ADEX; Dutch shipbuilder Damen was the "platinum sponsor" of the show and Chinese and Turkish shipbuilders also exhibited, suggesting they think there is naval business to be had in Azerbaijan." It seems the assumption was correct.
Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea in the turbulent Caucasus. It is currently engaged in an arms race with neighboring Armenia. The Bonn International Center for Conversion stated in a report that Armenia and Azerbaijan belong to the ten most militarized countries in the world. Armenia ranks third, a higher position than even Syria.
In 2013, Armenia's military expenditure reached the amount of 427 million dollars. Azerbaijan spent $ 3.4 billion in the same year on the military. In Armenia about 4 percent of the Gross National Product was spent on defense, in Azerbaijan 4.7 percent. Compared with other European countries this is significant. On top of imports Azerbaijan boosted its own arms production substantially.
Scientific research indicates that countries in a
potential conflict area which buy huge amounts of weapons have a
bigger chance to get at war with each other. And
with Azerbaijan and Armenia, conflict is never far away; allthough
there is a ceasefire since the war of 1994, throughout 2014 a total
of 72 people were killed on both sides.
Human
Rights Watch states in its annual report
for 2014 Human Rights Watch states that: "The
Azerbaijani government’s poor record on freedom of expression,
assembly, and association dramatically deteriorated during the year.
This crackdown was the backdrop for the October 2013 presidential
election, in which incumbent President Ilham Aliyev was re-elected
for a third term with 84.5 percent of the vote.”
At
the same time the Dutch
branch of Amnesty International launched a
campaign for the release of two Azeri human rights activists, Leyla
Yunus and her husband Arif,
who were arrested last year on charges of
treason and fraud. According to Amnesty, the charges were made up to
silence the activists in the run-up to the first edition of the
European
Games next summer.
Meanwhile,
the largest arms exporter in the Netherlands, Kommer Damen, visits
the Azerbaijani President in Davos to discuss military production.
Not only from a human rights point of view is this irrsponsible, but
also because of the tense situation in the region. Control based on
the arms export regulatuons an easy task. Damen
Shipyards Group is a company that operates in 18
countries and has 35 shipyards and builds complete warships in Asia,
the America's, Africa and other parts of Europe. The latest of its
foreign operations is the
licensing of its vessel designs to Louisiana boat-builder Metal
Shark Aluminum Boats. Because of this internationalisation it will be
easy to circumvent the Dutch arms export guidelines.
Thales Nederland, another prominent Dutch arms exporter, once said that is will not bite the hand which feeds it. For Damen, a significant part of its 'food' is provided by the Dutch government in the form of purchasing naval vessels and export support when selling them abroad. Damen for example knows very well how to use the of attractive Dutch export credit guarantees and Oret Miliev development grants. In the case of Azerbaijan, let's hope the Dutch government will warn Damen not to sell military vessels, instead of giving its support.
Written for Stop Wapenhandel Dutch version see Ravage Webzine
