CV NEWS FEED // The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has changed its designation of Azerbaijan from Special Watch List Status (SWL) to Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and is calling on the US State Department to do the same.
USCIRF’s latest designation, as stated in its recently issued annual report on May 1, comes in the wake of Azerbaijan’s continued violation of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
The report cites various targeted attacks and violations against Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christians, particularly those from the contested ethnically Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh who were forcibly displaced following Azerbaijan’s nine-month illegal blockade. The latest concerns in the region are centered on preserving centuries-old religious sites from Azerbaijani destruction.
During a press conference organized by religious freedom advocates from In Defense of Christians (IDC) and Save Armenia, Executive Director Aram Hamparian of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) also pressed the US State Department to follow USCIRF’s example:
President Biden’s Department of State – like President Trump’s before him – is guilty of complicity in Azerbaijan’s genocide of Artsakh by arming Azerbaijan, emboldening their aggression and abandoning the Artsakh’s indigenous Armenian Christian population.
We thank each of the USCIRF members who voted to red-list Azerbaijan and call upon our State Department to act on the facts, on the law, and based upon our American values by designating Azerbaijan as a Country of Particular Concern.
USCIRF also urged the State Department to “allocate funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Embassy in Baku to restore, preserve and protect places of worship and other religious or cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories.”
