By

Patrick Henningsen

21st Century Wire

It’s no secret that the governments of the US, UK and France, along with other EU member states, have been involved in training and equipping what used to be known as ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria. We now know that the bulk of the arms that get into opposition areas in Syria have gone to terrorist groups, much of which has been paid for by their wealthy benefactors in the Gulf, namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

What we didn’t know however, was the method of delivery, until now…



Back in April, 21WIRE reported how Trud Newspaper, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, broke the story of a ship called “Marianne Danica” arriving in the biggest port of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah under the flag of Denmark, after it left the port of Burgas on March 28th – loaded with tons of weapons heading for conflict zones. This was part of a trail that led Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva to East Aleppo in December 2016 where she discovered a massive Bulgarian arms cache that had made it into the hands of western and gulf-backed terrorists groups operating in Syria.

This week, Trud released the latest chapter of their investigation which details exactly how Silk Way Airlines (an Azerbaijani state-run company) conducted at least 350 diplomatic charter flights transporting weapons destined for war conflict areas across the world over the last 3 years. The key to this story is that the Azeri firm appears to have exploited a loop-hole in the international aviation and transport regulations by requesting a diplomatic exemption for aircrafts and their cargo, in effect allowing the Azeri airline to carry on-board tens of tons of heavy weapons and ammunition under the color of diplomatic immunity – with much of the cargo heading for known terrorist enclaves in Syria, but also to other conflict zones including Central Asia and Africa.

“Leaked files include correspondence between the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, 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, to name a few,” said Gaytandzhieva.

“According to these documents, 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, and US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), and the military forces of Germany and Denmark in Afghanistan, and of Sweden in Iraq. Diplomatic flights are exempt of checks, air bills, and taxes, meaning that Silk Way airplanes freely transported hundreds of tons of weapons to different locations around the world without regulation. They made technical landings with stays varying from a few hours to up to a day in intermediary locations without any logical reasons such as needing to refuel the planes.”

Documents implicating Silk Way Airlines were sent to the journalist via an ‘Anonymous’ Twitter account – Anonymous Bulgaria.

Payment and the shipment for weapons orders were made through a number of supposed front companies, and often co-signed by parties from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The international hub of this operation appears to be Azerbaijan. In some cases, because the volume and frequency of the flights has stretched Silk Way Airlines beyond their limits, the Azerbaijan Air Force was drafted in to help shoulder the load.

“On 12th 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). ”

It should be noted that Incirlik Air Base in Turkey is a shared US-NATO facility.

From the days of the Vietnam War, we also learned about a covert program known as Air America which became one of the most clandestine operations in CIA history involving gun-running and possible narcotics too.

NOTE: In the past, 21WIRE has reported on how registered CIA chartered aircraft used in Rendition flights were also used to transport narcotics internationally. Certainly, one could also ask the question here – what cargo was on the flights returning from Afghanistan to Europe chartered by Silk Way?

Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 (4K-AKZ100) similar to the accident aircraft, seen taxiing at Tallinn Estonia. (Photo by rotate270 via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND)

As it turns out, Silk Way Airlines has a history of work with NATO. On 6 July 2011, a Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft crashed into a hillside short of landing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, killing all nine people on board. The aircraft was said to have been transporting 18 tonnes (18 long tons; 20 short tons) of “fuel” for the International Security Assistance Force at the NATO base.

On May 18, 2016, a near repeat of the previous disaster happened again when another Silk Way cargo plane crashed while performing a “positioning flight” from Camp Dwyer (Afghanistan) to Mary (Turkmenistan), killing seven of its nine crew. The plane had crashed after taking off from Dwyer airport in Afghanistan. The crew were from Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

READ ALSO: Open War Crimes: US and British-Backed Weapons Airlift From Croatia to Terrorists in Syria

According to this latest report, corporate subcontractors include US-based companies Purple Shovel LLC based in Sterling, Virginia, US Department of Defense subcontracting vehicle Culmen International LLC based in Alexandria, Virginia, weapons and defense procurement firm Chemring Military Products based in Perry, Florida.

In total, the US portion of this particular part of the weapons operation over the last 3 years is estimated at $1 billion under a special US government program for “non-US standard weapon supplies.”

The loop-hole in question deals with a strict regulatory clause in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Dangerous Goods Regulations, whereby air operators transporting “dangerous goods” are forbidden to transport items on civil aircrafts, and may apply to obtain an official exemption for the international transportation of dangerous goods by air. Here we see how partnering governments simply placed the flights under diplomatic cover to avoid any problems moving the cargo. Trud’s Gaytandzhieva explains the work-around being used in order to traffic weapons into conflict zones:

“According to the documents, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has sent instructions to its embassies in Bulgaria and many other European countries to request diplomatic clearance for Silk Way Airlines flights. The embassies sent diplomatic notes to the Foreign Ministry of the relevant country to request such exemption. The Foreign Ministry sent back a note signed by the local civil aviation authorities giving exemption for the transportation of dangerous goods.”

“The requests for diplomatic clearance included information about the type and quantity of the dangerous goods – heavy weapons and ammunition. However, the responsible authorities of many countries (Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Germany, UK, Greece, etc.) have turned a blind eye and allowed diplomatic flights for the transport of tons of weapons, carried out by civil aircrafts for military needs. Under IATA regulations, the transport of military cargo by civil aircrafts is not allowed. To get around this legality, Silk Way Airlines applied for diplomatic exemption through local agencies.”

FAST & FURIOUS: Baku, Azerbaijan acts as the hub of NATO’s unofficial international gun-running racket.

The Israeli Leg

A number of seemingly unlikely partner countries have turned-up in this investigation. One of those is Israel – a nation who constantly claims to be fighting terrorism despite the fact that numerous reports have implicated Israel in their involvement in aiding and abetting “rebels” like Al Nusra terrorists in Syria. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal also revealed Israeli links to Al Nusra in Syria. This latest report by Trud shows an even more damning side of this dark alliance:

“In 2017, there were 5 flights from Nish (Serbia) via Ovda (Israel) to Nasosny (Azerbaijan). Each flight carried 44 tons of cargo – SPG Howitzer, RM-70/85. The consignor is MSM Martin, Serbia, the consignee: Elbit Systems, Israel, and the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. All aircrafts landed in Israel and stayed for 2 hours en-route to Azerbaijan.

The same Israeli company Elbit Systems on a flight from Barno (the Czech Republic) via Tel Aviv (Israel) to Bratislava (Slovakia) re-exported armored vehicles (TATRA T-815 VP31, TATRA T-815 VPR9). They were sent by Real Trade, Prague to Elbit Systems. The ultimate consignee, however, was the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. The aircraft landed in Tel Aviv and then in Bratislava, where the cargo was imported by another company – MSM Martin, Slovakia. It is not clear why the plane flew from Europe to Asia and then back to Europe with the same cargo on-board. Ultimately, it did not reach its final destination – Azerbaijan.”

The other unlikely partner in this weapons trafficking chain is Serbia – a country who many count as a staunch ally of Russia. As Moscow is so heavily invested in the fight against radical Salafi terrorism in Syria and beyond, Serbia’s dubious own role in this daisy chain should raise some concerned eyebrows.

Weapons for the Kurds

The report also details some 300 tons of RPG-s, machine guns and ammunition heading to US-backed Kurdish forces, via Erbil Iraq.

“In March of 2017, over 300 tons of weapons were allegedly sent to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Northern Syria. Six diplomatic flights transported 43 tons of grenades on each flight from VMZ Military Plant, Bulgaria, to the Defense Ministry of Iraq. There are no contracts applied, however. On 28 March, 82 tons of cargo (AKM 7,62×39 mm and AG-7) were sent from Otopeni (Romania) to Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan). The consignor was Romtechnica S.A., the consignee – again the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad. No contracts are provided for this flight either.”

Watch this recent report and interview with Dilyana Gaytandzhieva for the UK Column:



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ALSO LISTEN TO THE FULL LENGTH AUDIO INTERVIEW with Dilyana Gaytandzhieva on the SUNDAY WIRE

Be sure to read Trud’s full and extensive investigative report here.

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Patrick Henningsen is an American-born writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire and host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR).

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