Turan: Azerbaijani authorities handicap new US Embassy construction because of presidential elections criticism
The Azerbaijani government has rejected the previously signed agreement with the US regarding the construction of a new US Embassy in Baku. This comes immediately after Washington criticized the Presidential elections in Baku in 2013, an informed diplomatic source told the Azerbaijani information agency “Turan.”
According to the article, the subsequent State Department report on April-May, 2014 stated that the present American embassy building in Azerbaijan is in poor condition despite the desperate attempts of the management to keep it in a normal state. “The Azerbaijani government has more than once cut off the attempts of the Embassy to get a place for the Embassy complex,” the report reads.
The American criticism of the Azerbaijani elections violations in 2013, as well as the toughening of the legislation in the sphere of human rights has annoyed the government of Ilham Aliyev, the article reports, referring to the same source. “Even though Azerbaijan has made some progress in the field of economic reforms, serious problems still remain in other spheres, and first of all in the field of civil society and human fights,” the document states.
As “Turan” notes, it’s emphasized in the document that the attempts of the US embassy to set up a constructive cooperation with the officials of the Azerbaijani government have been facing difficulties after the elections even in the fields of mutual interest.