Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry official has said France didn’t support the extension of the mandate of Alexis Chahtahtinsky, the OSCE Project Coordinator in Azerbaijan, who is a citizen of France.

Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was commenting on Chahtahtinsky’s completing his mission in Azerbaijan.

“The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry received a letter from Alexis Chahtahtinsky, the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku. The letter relates to Chahtahtinsky’s mission end-term on May 31, 2015. The OSCE statement also says France did not support the extension of his mission for the next period,” Hajiyev said.

Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration’s foreign relations department earlier announced that the mandate of Chahtahtinsky had been suspended.

“I have learnt that Chahtahtinsky’s mandate was suspended. According to diplomatic circles, the position of the U.S. Representative to the OSCE was the main reason,” Mammadov tweeted on June 1.

Mammadov added that Daniel Baer, the U.S. representative to the OSCE rebuked Chahtahtinsky for posing in a picture next to Azerbaijan’s president.

“Apparently, if Chahtahtinsky had posed next to Ambassador Baer his future career would have been more successful,” Mammadov further added.

French diplomat Chahtahtinsky has been appointed OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku starting from March 1, 2014.

Prior to this appointment, the diplomat served in Paris at the Foreign Ministry’s Policy Planning Centre and as Special Adviser to the French Minister for Europe.

A career diplomat with over 20 years of experience in European security, Chahtahtinsky has served in various postings abroad: Head of the NATO Information Office in Moscow, Chargé d’Affaires in Belarus and Tajikistan, and Consul General of France in Kraków (Poland). He also previously served as Deputy Head of the former OSCE Office in Baku.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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