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"Washington is disappointed to hear about Baku’s plans to close the OSCE office and calls to reconsider its decision." Washington's reaction was voiced by the US Ambassador Daniel Baer at OSCE Permanent Council’s meeting in Vienna on June 8, according to the Azerbaijani news portal Haqqin.az.

"Last Friday we learned from the Secretary General that Azerbaijan has declared about its intention to disclaim a memorandum on OSCE Project Coordinator’s work in Baku. It is deeply disappointing. At the same time, it is important to remember that the office of project coordinator operates on the basis of a political mandate agreed by all 57 OSCE Participating States. Therefore, like any decision taken by consensus of the participants, it may be withdrawn only on the basis of consensus," Baer said.

He said one of the ways how governments demonstrate their commitment to the improvement of the comprehensive security is when their citizens can have direct interaction with OSCE. "The OSCE’s presence on places and work with the citizens and governments contribute to the success of reforms and the implementation of obligations to the OSCE. The office should continue to work, and we urge the Azerbaijani government to reconsider its intention," US Ambassador to OSCE highlighted.

According to Haqqin.az, Baer noted that if Baku decides to close OSCE office, it will have a negative impact on the implementation of the international obligations, and first of all on ensuring human rights and fundamental freedoms. "It is not good for the comprehensive security in the region, it is not good for people, or the government of Azerbaijan," he said.

According to the news portal Caucasian Knot, the Azerbaijani experts explain the liquidation of the OSCE Office in Baku by Alexis Shakhtakhtinsky’s withdrawal from his post of the head of the Office. They say he was "quite loyal to the Azerbaijani authorities." According to the experts, the reason for closing the office is Azerbaijani authorities’ policy of curtailing cooperation with Western institutions that deal with democracy issues.

The head of East-West research center Arastun Orujlu told Caucasian Knot that the termination of relations with the West could lead to Azerbaijan’s international isolation. "I believe that the closure of the OSCE office, despite the fact that two years ago its status had already been downgraded to a ‘project coordinator,’ is an indicator of official Baku reaching a culmination point of anti-Western demarches," Orujlu declared.

He also recalled that US NGOs - the National Democratic Institute, IREX – had forcibly shut down their representations, and earlier the authorities closed down office of the Norwegian Foundation Human Rights House. "This is the general line of policy of the Azerbaijani authorities against Western institutions. OSCE worked mainly in two areas in Azerbaijan - democracy, human rights and elections, and Karabakh settlement. The pro-government press recently heavily criticized the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh settlement as well. I do not exclude that Azerbaijan can give up this structure where two of the three co-chairs are Western countries: the United States and France,” Orujlu said. According to him, the termination of relations with the West could lead to Azerbaijan’s international isolation.

The article reads that the head of the Center for Political and Economic Studies FAR Centre, political scientist Hikmet Hajizade, also thinks that the closure of the OSCE office in Baku is connected with the policy of the authorities of Azerbaijan against Western democracy institutions. "The closure of the OSCE office is in line with the general policy of the Azerbaijani authorities against the institutions of the West which demand democracy and respect for human rights. This is where the Azerbaijani regime sees the threat, because it wants to rule forever," Hikmet Hajizade said.

In his opinion, the authorities of the country wished to fully neutralize this institution. "In this respect, they were quite comfortable with Alexis Shakhtakhtinsky who had no contacts with the representatives of civil society. Sometimes it seemed that Shakhtakhtinsky was the representative of Azerbaijan in OSCE, rather than vice versa. Now the authorities likely think that the new possible head of office will be more principled and will raise the issues of criminal prosecution of human rights defenders Leyla Yunus, Intigam Aliyev and others. To avoid the risk, the authorities probably decided to close office of OSCE at all," Hikmet Hajizade said.

The lawyer of the Institute of Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) Gunay Ismayilova told Caucasian Knot that the closure of the OSCE office will not affect the work of civil society. "On the one hand, OSCE has ceased to support civil society. On the other hand, the independent NGOs have actually stopped working due to the suspension of the mechanism for registration of grants, the freezing of some NGOs’ bank accounts," she said.

The article reads that one of the staff members of OSCE office in Baku, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that all the technical issues associated with the closure of the office must be resolved till the 4th of July.

Earlier, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Novruz Mammadov, had written on his Twitter that he had learnt that the OSCE Azerbaijan Project Coordinator A. Shakhtakhtinsky’s mandate was suspended because of the photo with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. He wrote that according to diplomatic circles, the position of the U.S. Representative to the OSCE was the main reason, “The U.S. Representative to the OSCE Daniel Baer rebuked A. Shakhtakhtinsky for posing on the picture next to the president of Azerbaijan. Apparently, if Mr. Shakhtakhtinsky had posed next to Amb. Baer, his future career would have been more successful.” Spokesperson for Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, HikmetHajiyev, says that France did not support the extension of the mandate of OSCE Azerbaijan project coordinator Alexis Shahtakhtinski who appears to be a citizen of that country.

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