Azerbaijani Silk Way cargocompany and air forces transported weapons under the cover of diplomatic flights, Bulgarian newspaper Trud reports.
The author of the investigation, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, presented the photos of Grad rockets transported by Silk Way and found at Al Nusra warehouse in liberated Aleppo.
For several years Silk Way and the Azerbaijani air forces requested clearance for diplomatic flights (not subject to checks) and transported thousands of tons of weapons by them, the newspaper writes.
The consignor was the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, the consignees being the Afghani police and the Republican Guards of Congo. However, the weapons appeared in Iraq and Syria. Major customers of the flights were US, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Bulgarian MFA, which provides the necessary clearance for diplomatic flights, helped the Azerbaijani side, the newspaper notes. Copies of relevant documents are attached to the article.
A user under the nickname Anonymous Bulgaria sent to Trud newspaper the correspondence between the Bulgarian MFA and Azerbaijani Embassy in Sofia with attached documents for weapons deals and diplomatic clearance for overflight and/or landing in Bulgaria and many other European countries, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, etc.
Silk Way Airlines offered diplomatic flights to private companies and arms manufacturers from the US, Balkans, and Israel, as well as to the militaries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, the military forces of Germany and Denmark in Afghanistan and of Sweden in Iraq, and finally US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The airline company transported thousand of tons of weapons for them.
They made technical landings with stays varying from a few hours to up to a day in intermediary locations without any logical reasons (they didn’t need to refuel the planes).
According to international agreements, clearance for overflight or landing is provided for military aircraft, whereas Silk Way has no such rights, their aircraft being civil. Thus, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry sent instructions to its embassies in Bulgaria and a number of other European countries to request diplomatic clearance for Silk Way Airlines flights.
The responsible authorities of many countries (Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Germany, UK, Greece, etc.) turned a blind eye to what was being transported by the diplomatic flights.
Some of the weapons that Azerbaijan carried on diplomatic flights were used by its military in Nagorno-Karabakh against Armenia. In 2016, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of using white phosphorus. Armenia denied the allegations. Interestingly enough, according to the documents of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Sofia, white phosphorus munitions were carried on a diplomatic flight via Baku in 2015
Among the main customers of the “diplomatic flights for weapons” service provided by Silk Way Airlines were American companies. The common element in these cases is that they all supplied non-US standard weapons; hence, it would be logical to suppose that the weapons were not used by the US forces.
Trud checked the register of federal contracts and found out that over the last 3 years American companies were awarded $1 billion contracts in total under a special US government program for non-US standard weapon supplies. All of them used Silk Way Airlines for the transport of weapons. Below are a few examples:
On 12 May 2015 an aircraft of Azerbaijan Air Forces carried 7,9 tons of PG-7V and 10 tons of PG-9V to the supposed destination via the route Burgas (Bulgaria)-Incirlik (Turkey)-Burgas-Nasosny (Azerbaijan). The consignor was the American company Purple Shovel, and the consignee – the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. According to the documents, however, the military cargo was offloaded at Incirlik military base and never reached the consignee. The weapons were sold to Purple Shovel by Alguns, Bulgaria, and manufactured by Bulgaria’s VMZ military plant.
According to the federal contracts registry, in December of 2014 USSOCOM signed a $26.7 million contract with Purple Shovel. Bulgaria was indicated as the country of origin of the weapons.
Another U.S. contractor involved in the same program for non-US standard military supplies is Orbital ATK. This company received $250 million over just the past two years alone. Information as to what type of weapons and to whom those weapons were supplied is classified.
According to the documents, Orbital ATK transported weapons on 6 diplomatic Silk Way Airlines flights in July and August of 2015 flying the route Baku (Azerbaijan)-Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina)-Baku-Kabul (Afghanistan). The weapons were exported by IGMAN j.j. Konjic, (Bosnia and Herzegovina) commissioned by Orbital ATK. The consignee was the National Police of Afghanistan. Interestingly, all these diplomatic flights with weapons had technical landings and a 7 h 30 min stop at Baku before their final destination – Afghanistan.
Military aircrafts of Azerbaijan transported 282 tons of cargo (PG-7VL and other grenades) on 10 diplomatic flights in April and May 2017 to the destination Baku-Rijeka (Croatia)-Baku. The consignor was the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, and the consignee – Culmen International LLC, USA. This same company has been awarded two contracts ($47 million each) along with other contractors for non-US standard weapon supplies on 18 February 2016 and 19 April 2017 respectively.
Chemring Military Products is another main contractor in the program for non-US standard weapon supplies to the US army through diplomatic Silk Way Airlines flights. This military supplier has 4 contracts for $302.8 million in total. The weapons were purchased from local manufacturers in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania and according to documents transported to Iraq and Afghanistan via diplomatic flights.
The largest non-US standard weapons supplier to the US army is Alliant Techsystems Operations-USA with contracts totalling $490.4 million. In December of 2016, this company transported tons of grenades (API 23×115 mm, HE 23×115 mm, GSH 23×115 mm) from Yugoimport, Serbia to the Afghani Defense Ministry on diplomatic flights to the destination Baku-Belgrade-Kabul.
