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Recently, the public attention of Azerbaijan riveted to itself a message that the U.S. permanent representative to OSCE Gary Robbins had made a curious statement at the session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. He told the audience about the plans of the official Baku to limit the authorities and the OSCE mission in Baku. "In the case of satisfying the "request" the activities of its mission in Baku will become purposeless," says the article in the Azerbaijani newspaper "Zerkalo".

"We have received a request from the Government of Azerbaijan to change the mandate of the OSCE Office in Baku," said Robbins, noting that the current mandate of the OSCE office in Baku was updated in early 2013, and it was given a task to "promote the principles and OSCE commitments in all areas, including political, economic, human and environmental aspects, as well as stability and security."

Robbins stressed that the mission in Baku is of great importance for showing support to Azerbaijan in developing democratic institutions. According to him, reports on political issues and human rights are important prevention mechanisms; this is a contribution into OSCE’s role of prevention and resolution of conflicts.

The article notes that the official Baku did not comment on these statements for about a week and the Azerbaijani authorities did not report about such an appeal to the OSCE. Only on 28 March the Azerbaijani Radio "Liberty" service reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan had issued a statement saying that the agency had sent a letter to the OSCE Chairman Leonid Kozhara, asking to change the mission of the OSCE Office in Baku into a project coordinator status.

It is stated in the article that there information with no details that the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier has already discussed the issue with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

According to the former Councillors of State of Azerbaijan, political scientist Vafa Guluzade, the new measures are being carried out in order to prevent criticism of the OSCE in the upcoming elections. Earlier, the OSCE has repeatedly called the elections held in Azerbaijan not free and unfair. "It's not about the current relationship, but about the upcoming elections. It is hard to predict, whether the OSCE will recognize the future elections or not. Perhaps there is a concern at this point and there is a desire to turn the OSCE into a compliant organization," Vafa Guluzade said.

Hafiz Hasanov, the chairman of the "Law and Development" public association, came to the conclusion that due to new terms the OSCE observers simply will not be invited to the elections to be held in October in Azerbaijan.

The article notes that the pro-government media there are still reports about some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which "threaten the national security." Thus, in mid-March, three activists were arrested, including an employee of the National Democratic Institute at Baku office which is an NGO funded by the U.S. and which, in the state-owned press of Azerbaijan, was previously accused of financing the “revolution in Facebook”. The U.S. Embassy in Baku categorically denies the accusationa.

The author writes that the actions of the authorities of Azerbaijan against the OSCE were surprising for many, especially taking into consideration the fact that the mandate of the mission in Baku was approved only 4 months ago, and its budget was approved just a few weeks ago.

"We must keep in mind that lowering the status of the OSCE Mission down to the status of Project Coordinator assumes one very important detail - now the OSCE Office will coordinate all its projects with the Azerbaijani authorities and implement them with the consent of the official Baku," writes the author, and stresses that the Azerbaijani authorities want to reduce the staff of the mission and to limit its authorities. First of all, these restrictions apply to the potential of the OSCE mission in conducting independent activities, to react on events and processes related to elections, violations of human rights and democracy: "It also speaks of an effort to avoid direct cooperation between the OSCE and local NGOs. And, of course, as noted above, it could mean the non-admission to the country the OSCE observer mission ODIHR during the election year."