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“I have been engaged in U.S. - Azerbaijani relations since 1992 and I haven’t seen a situation worse than the one that currently exists in Azerbaijan,” former ambassador of U.S. to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich (1994-1997) said when answering to the questions of the correspondent from the Azerbaijani news agency Turan.

As it is stated by Turan, Richard Kauzlarich expressed serious concerns about the political situation in Azerbaijan in regard to new facts on persecutions of journalists and political activists. Under this context dozens of American diplomats, congressmen and officials are going to participate in conference called “Vision for the Future” held in Washington on April 29-30. Many observers believe that this is a PR event sponsored by State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR, the news agency reports.

According to Kauzlarich, the American Co-chair of Minsk Group James Warlick is being criticized in Azerbaijan, while the employees of U.S. Congress are accused of espionage. At the same time the Azerbaijani authorities finance Azerbaijani-American conference to be held in Washington “to support U.S.-Azerbaijan strategic partnership”.

Referring to the arrest of journalist Rauf Mirkadirov in Azerbaijan, Kauzlarich said the arrest of this prominent independent journalist after his forced deportation from Turkey, raised serious concerns among human rights groups all around the World.
Rauf Mirkadirov’s arrest for Kauzlarich “is the last link in the downstream actions of Aliyev’s regime aimed to suppress political dissidence, freedom of media and any attempts to engage in positive contacts between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.”

“The regime is not afraid of Russia or Iran but of its own citizens…They (the Azerbaijani authorities ed.) even prohibit the hotels to host the events organized by those NGOs which criticize the regime. This all is another proof that the regime doesn’t care about the external reaction on the growing suppression of the Azerbaijani citizens,” Kauzlarich emphasized.

As Turan notes, it is expected that at the upcoming U.S –Azerbaijani conference 6 key U.S. Senators and Deputy Assistant of the Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy will make speeches at the special session on “Eurasian Energy Corridor”. At the same time, 20 other congressmen lined up to attend the breakfast at Congress to discuss the U.S.-Azerbaijani strategic partnership in Caspian region.

U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar and the deputy assistant of the Secretary of Defense Evelyn Farkas along with several American scholars and Azerbaijani MP will make speeches at the panel “Azerbaijan, a reliable friend at the most important global Crossroads”. None of those sessions is dedicated to the political situation of Azerbaijan.

Recently, the embassy of Azerbaijan has hired the former member of Massachusetts’s House of Representatives Bill Delahunt to work on the organization of strategy and relations with the legislators, on relations with the U.S. government, communication with the U.S. officials, and, perhaps, also with the American mass media, Turan reports.

Note that Rauf Mirkadirov, columnist of Azerbaijani newspaper "Zerkalo", was arrested on April 18 in Ankara on charges of expiration of documents. On April 19 Mirkadirov was deported to Azerbaijan, where he immediately was arrested and put in custody by the MNS on suspicion of treason. On April 21 the court in Baku sanctioned his arrest for three months. Mirkadirov is accused of the cooperation with special services of Armenia; specifically he is accused of making the transfers of the state secret information, including those about the dislocation of Azerbaijani Armed forces to Armenia during 2008-2009.