Mission of Novruz Mammadov in the U.S.

Baku/19.09.13/Turan : Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, head of the department of international relations, Novruz Mammadov, is visiting the United States.

As the Washington correspondent for Turan reported, on September 18, Novruz Mammadov was received by the Deputy Secretary of State, Bill Burns. The content of the talks was not provided to the press.

The parties did not comment on the visit by Mammadov or the purpose of his trip to America.

A source in the presidential administration of Azerbaijan only confirmed the visit to the United States, refusing to comment it.

Probably Mammadov was sent to the United States with a particular mission. The visit takes place against the background of certain difficulties in the bilateral relations. In the first part of September, official Baku, in fact, refused to receive the delegation headed by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Thomas Melia, who previously sharply criticized the human rights problems in Azerbaijan.

In addition, in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, the regional representatives of the ruling party, New Azerbaijan, refused to meet with the Deputy U.S. Ambassador, Derek Hogan, under the pretext of "being busy."

Disruption of the visit of Melia and ignoring the embassy staff in the NAR by the functionaries of the ruling party can be regarded as an expression of dissatisfaction by the Azerbaijani authorities with respect to the position of Washington at the presidential election. -25D06 -