SOFYA, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. The 100 lev fine (nearly 28.000 AMD) caused by a car crash due to a fault of the driver of the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Bulgaria served basis for Baku diplomats in Sofya to exploit the level of bilateral relations and threaten Bulgarian diplomats in Baku with similar fines, reports Armenpress.

Based on the own examination of documents posted by Anonymous Bulgaria group, the correspondence of January 2017 reveals interesting details.

In January 2017 after receiving the documents on the fine via the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, the Azerbaijani Embassy’s employee Kenan Mamedov (3rd secretary of the Embassy) through numerous phone calls and letters tried to ask for a meeting with the Foreign Ministry officials to “negotiate” over the car crash. From the study of documents it becomes clear that a car crash has taken place with the fault and participation of the Embassy’s employee: the latter was fined. That man was Vugar Sadigov, the driver of the Azerbaijani Ambassador who accepted the fine of the Bulgarian Traffic Police.

Perhaps the participation of the Ambassador’s driver in the car accident was the reason for diplomats to be actively engaged in this primitive issue.

According to the analysis of the documents, the Azerbaijani side demanded to cancel the fine of 100 levs, and in fact, to interfere in changing the decision of the insurance company and receiving compensation (by declaring guilty not only the Ambassador’s driver, but also the remaining participants of the car accident). The Bulgarian diplomats said the fine cannot be cancelled and added that they have no authority to interfere in the legal-contractual relationship of private companies. In response to Kenan Mamedov’s requests to “negotiate”, the Bulgarian diplomats ask to clarify the point of the meeting.

The Azerbaijani diplomat started writing the “masterpiece” of the letter genre on February 1, at 14:32 and completed it next day at 17:57. According to the study of the document’s technical data, the diplomat overall has worked on the letter for 4 hours and 8 minutes.

Below are the parts of the letter:

Entrance and incident

“We have considered the attached documents regarding the case and would like to draw your attention to the following facts:

Azerbaijan and Bulgaria have been enjoying friendly relations for over past two decades. As law abiding citizens of Azerbaijan, the Embassy’s staff members have also always respected the laws and rules of the hosting country, Bulgaria. In terms of car driving, I would like to reassure that they are careful drivers. Though anyone driving in Iztok district, where our Embassy is located, will agree that many inner roads there are not wide enough for safe two way traffic and moreover there are also cars being continuously parked on both sides of roads, event on pavements”, says the Azerbaijani diplomat, adding that as “good neaighbors” they have never complained about these difficulties.

“As for Mr. Sadigov’s case: we agree that there is a road traffic sign there, on the right corner of Nikolay Ostrovski street with Akademik Metodi Popov street. This sign is “Give way”, which in road transport, indicates that each driver must prepare to stop if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed. On that day Mr. Sadigov was driving on Nikolay Ostrovski street with the intention to turn to the left and go up along Akademik Metodi Popov street. He saw the above-mentioned road traffic sign before approaching this Akad. Metodi Popov street. However, unfortunately, the visibility of this street in the direction to Charles Darwin street, notably at the right side from Mr. Sadigov, was not good due to cars parked there. Therefore, after being sure that there is no car coming from above, he drove the car a little bit further to have better visibility of other, below part of the street”, the letter says, adding that the car accident took place partly due to other care (Renault Megane).

This long narrative and explanation is important in a sense that the Azerbaijani Embassy accepted the guilt of its driver, however, for some reasons, it wants to find a share of guilt also in the actions of another driver by making a reference to other factors, such as the 20-year-old relations of the two countries, the length and width of the streets. This episode perhaps can be considered as a usual incident, however, we believe that the issue is in fact to receive compensation from insurance company since the Azerbaijani Ambassador’s car has been damaged…There is a need to repair it. We think it’s clear to everyone how and to what extent the Azerbaijani Embassy staff respects the rules and laws of the hosting country.

How the senior diplomat was saved?

The next part of the letter is difficult to read without a smile, thus, we present it with no comment.

“Traffic rules must be observed and driving has to be careful in order to avoid car accidents. Those who break traffic rules should be punished. None argue this. We can only welcome all activities aimed at making roads safer. However, in our understanding the treatment should be equal to all. Unfortunately, over last months there have been two cases when the Embassy’s cars were hit by other cars driven by Bulgarian citizens. The first car was the Embassy’s car of BMW model, 3rd series, with the plate number 7001. The second accident was related to the Embassy’s car of BMW model, 5th series with the plate number 7070, which happened at the street of Fridtjof Nansen (on the corner with Lyuben Karavelov street) last December.

The Embassy’s senior diplomat Mr. Vusal Abdullayev just parked and was about to leave the car when it was dangerously hit from the left side by the car (Nissan) coming backwards from up against the traffic movement. As later the driver verbally explained to our colleague, due to the cold weather the battery failed and he couldn’t start the engine. Therefore, he decided to push his car backwards by himself alone in order to make the engine starting. Since he was out of the car while pushing it backwards, he couldn’t manage the process and as a result hit and damaged our car while Mr. Abdullayev was in. If our diplomat would leave his car a little bit earlier, he could definitely being killed on the ground or severely injured.

I think that everybody will agree that this was a severe violation of traffic rules. In both cases, the police and insurance were informed and they arrived to the places where car accident took place. In the second case, they came after an hour and made all necessary formalities. The guy who hit Mr. Abdullayev’s car signed all documents and then left the place as it were a minor car accident. We don’t doubt that relevant fines were imposed by Bulgarian traffic police to both Bulgarian citizens, who made these accidents, however, regretfully, until now the Embassy has not been informed about any actions taken”, the letter says.

To pay or not to pay, this is the problem

Accepting the obvious facts and saving the life of Vusal Abdullayev (the Embassy advisor on political affairs) via the letter, the Azerbaijani diplomats pass to a threatening hint according to which they are going to fine the Bulgarian Embassy staff in Baku, stating that the Azerbaijani side doesn’t impose fines on the Bulgarian Embassy staff members and there had not been any case when the Bulgarian Embassy’s employee will pay a fine in Azerbaijan”, the 3^rd secretary of the Azerbaijani Embassy writes.

The culmination of the letter is perhaps its summary where Kenan Mamedov mixes the understanding and threat in the same cocktail.

“Please, understand us correctly. For us, it is not an issue of payment or not paying the fine matters, rather the reciprocity in our relationship, because based on the principle, the Embassy will need to report every related case to our capital and then the staff members of the Bulgarian Embassy there will also face the same claims. But acting in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect, we would like to avoid such unpleasant cases in our bilateral relations”.

How this story of 100 levs has ended is no longer important. But we hope the Azerbaijani Ambassador’s driver has learnt the lesson of safe driving, otherwise the residents of the Iztok district should be afraid of appearing under the wheels of the car of the Azerbaijani Ambassador.

Aram Ananyan, Aren Petunts, Davit Mamyan