1998 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report

Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
United States Department of State
February 26, 1999

AZERBAIJAN

I. Summary

Azerbaijan is located along a drug transit route from Iran and Central Asia north to Russia and Central and Western Europe. Consumption and cultivation of narcotics are at low but increasing levels. The main drugs seized were opium and cannabis. Azerbaijan is devising a national drug control strategy including a new national narcotics law. Section 907 of the U.S. Freedom Support Act has precluded the funding of U.S. counternarcotics assistance in 1998. Azerbaijan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention and recently ratified the 1961 and 1971 UN Drug Conventions. The United Nations Narcotics Drug Control Program (UNDCP) is presently carrying out a program of technical counternarcotics assistance.

II. Status of Country

Azerbaijan's main narcotics problem is the increased transit of drugs through its territory resulting from the disruption of the "Balkan Route" due to regional ethnic conflicts in several countries of the former Yugoslavia. Narcotics from Afghanistan and South Asia enter from Iran or cross the Caspian Sea from Central Asia and continue on to markets in Russia and Europe. Azerbaijan has nearly 700 KM frontier with Iran, but its border control forces are inadequate to patrol it effectively. Iranian and other traffickers are exploiting this situation. Consumption is growing with over 11,000 persons registered in hospitals for drug abuse and the actual level of drug use is estimated many times higher. Government authorities suspect that unemployed and displaced persons from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been drawn into drug trafficking out of economic necessity. The Azerbaijan government continues to claim that the Armenian occupied areas of Azerbaijan are used for drug cultivation, and that narcotics are transported across the approximately 100km of Azerbaijan's border with Iran that is under Armenian control.

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 1998

Policy Initiatives. An Azerbaijan government commission supervises the implementation of a national program to combat drug addiction and trafficking. Laws that criminalize drug use and trafficking already exist, however, additional improved legislation has been proposed. Government authorities have closed all gambling casinos in the country to halt the perceived threat of organized crime activity. The UNDCP is implementing a two-year $740,000 counternarcotics assistance plan which includes training of Ministry of Interior Police, Customs, and Border Guards, and a technical assistance program focused primarily on laboratory equipment.

Law Enforcement Efforts. There were over 2,000 drug-related arrests in 1998. Police lack basic equipment and have little experience in modern counternarcotics methods. Border control facilities on the Iranian border are inadequate to control smuggling.

Corruption. Corruption permeates the public and private sectors. Government officials including the President and Prime Minister have remarked on the gravity of the problem, however, there have been no prosecutions of prominent offenders that would have a broader deterrent effect. Current legislation is inadequate to address police and judicial corruption.

Agreements and Treaties. Azerbaijan has no narcotics-related agreements or treaties with the US, and no extradition agreement. Azerbaijan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, and in 1998 ratified the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Azerbaijan signed a protocol of intent on counternarcotics cooperation with Iran in 1996.

Cultivation and Production. Cannabis and poppy are cultivated illegally, mostly in southern Azerbaijan. In 1998, law enforcement authorities discovered and destroyed 420 tons of cannabis and 75 tons of poppies, which were under cultivation.

Drug Flow/Transit. Opium and poppy straw originating in Afghanistan and South Asia transit Azerbaijan from Iran, or from Central Asia across the Caspian Sea. Traffickers are also transporting drug shipments on commercial aircraft from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to Azerbaijan. The shipments then are transferred to Azeri aircraft and sent to Istanbul, Turkey. From Turkey, the drugs are loaded onto Transporte Internationale Routier (TIR) trucks destined for Europe. Another route is to smuggle drugs through Azerbaijan to Russia, then on to Europe. Azerbaijan cooperates with Black Sea and Caspian Sea states in tracking and interdicting narcotics shipments, especially morphine base and heroin. Caspian Sea cooperation includes efforts to interdict narcotics transported across the Caspian Sea by ferry. Law enforcement officials report they have received good cooperation from Russia, but have encountered considerable reluctance from Iran to assist in counternarcotics efforts. The Azerbaijan government provides no figures of amounts seized on these routes, or about foreign-origin as a percentage of all drugs seized.

Demand Reduction. Opium and cannabis products are the most commonly used drugs. With UNDCP assistance, the Azerbaijan government has began education initiatives directed at curbing drug consumption.

IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Bilateral Cooperation. U.S. law enforcement exchange of information with Azerbaijan increased in 1998, however, no counternarcotics programs were initiated because of provisions of Section 907 of the U.S. Freedom Support Act which prohibits assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan.

The Road Ahead. Working level law enforcement contacts begun in 1998 may increase, possibly in areas such as legal reform, human rights, counter- proliferation, and counter-terrorism any of which could also result in collateral improvements in counternarcotics efforts. Another area of consideration, which could have direct application, would be U.S. assistance in demand reduction through non-governmental organizations.