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Pressure on international vote monitors in Azerbaijan ahead of the presidential elections "calls into question the legitimacy of the elections,” Michael Tkacik, an American academic and analyst on democracy and international affairs told the Azerbaijani news agency Turan.

The expert described the possible outcomes of growing pressure against the OSCE and NDI in Azerbaijan. These organizations, he said, play a key role in supporting human rights, democracy, and in building civil society, Tkacik said and noted that OSCE arose out of the Helsinki process, which recognized that human rights are more than an internal affair.

OSCE was important in building the first free institutions in the Soviet Union, though that assertion is certainly subject to debate. “To reject the OSCE is to reject these values: NDI is more specifically about promoting free and fair elections. To reject the NDI is to reject democracy. To reject both of these organizations six months before major elections raises a question as to the legitimacy of these elections,” Tkacik stressed.

“Beyond this, he added, the move raises other question: If government is afraid of the OSCE and NDI, which have no enforcement powers, what is left? Why would a government be so fearful of transparency unless it has something to hide? It opens the door not just to unfair elections, but to even greater corruption than currently exists," he added.

Asked if there is any reason to consider the western institutions "a threat" to the government of the countries where they are operating, Mr. Tkacik said "Authoritarians in the FSU (Former Soviet Union) fear independent sources of power in society. IGOs (such as the OSCE) and NGOs (such as NDI) are therefore targeted. If this is Western domination, it is so only in the sense that post-Enlightenment liberalism is equated with "Western interests,” the expert says.

“Organizations such as the OSCE and NDI "are only threats to a state if that state sees the goals of those organizations - expanding post-Enlightenment liberalism - as a threat to the state,” he noted.

A state that attacks these organizations is not afraid of the organizations, which after all have little real power. This is done to hide the non-transparent and illegal activities of the state. Speaking about the situation with the media in Azerbaijan, the analyst said, obviously, attacks on journalists "negatively impact Azerbaijan's image in the West. There are, however, a wide range of states with which Azerbaijan can trade and interact - it does not have to "face" west. "Azerbaijan is making itself a welcome home among these states," he emphasized.

In October 2013, regular presidential election will be held in Azerbaijan. On March 14, the U.S. representative to the OSCE Gary Robbins told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna about the plans of the official Baku to limit the power and the mission of the Organization in the country. Later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev stated that Baku has sent a letter to the OSCE in connection with lowering the status of the mission. As for the NDI, it is accused of organizing "Facebook revolution" in Azerbaijan.