U.S. State Department is alarmed by the Azerbaijani government’s crackdown on civil society, director of the press office Jeff Rathke said.

“The Secretary raised our concerns in his December 21st phone call with President Aliyev. Since then, we have seen the closure of RFE/RL’s offices, the seizure of its property, and RFE/RL employees forcibly taken from their homes for questioning by local law enforcement on unspecified charges,” he said during a briefing on Monday.

State Department representative called again on Azerbaijani authorities to adhere to their OSCE and other international commitments to uphold human rights and basic freedoms, including freedom of the press.

“We’ve raised our concern about these activities with senior officials in the Azerbaijani Government, and indeed, the Secretary himself raised these concerns just a few days ago with President Aliyev. So clearly, this is a topic that we take quite seriously. It remains on our agenda and we will continue to raise it, but I’m not going to prejudge anything further,” he said.