Statements
26 March 2025, 14:46
The US government agency, the Commission on Religious Freedom, recently published its annual report on the state of religious freedom in the world.
For several years in a row, the Commission has openly demonstrated its bias towards Azerbaijan, and this year its report is also full of biased and unfounded accusations against our country. As in previous years, the authors of the report rely on fictitious reports prepared by radical Armenian nationalists (L. Khachaturyan, H. Ghulyan, S. Bokcheryan), financed by extremist organizations such as the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Aragats Fund, as well as on documents from the infamous Freedom House organization, which is distinguished by its anti-Azerbaijani activities and has become a tool in the hands of representatives of the radical Armenian diaspora.
Another important proof of the bias of this Commission, established by the US Congress, is that it does not monitor the situation in Armenia at all. If we follow the logic of the Commission, then Armenia, having expelled more than a million Azerbaijanis from its own territory and from previously occupied Azerbaijani lands, subjecting them to total ethnic cleansing for belonging to another religion, destroying more than 300 mosques and hundreds of cemeteries there, “fully ensured” religious freedom.
The document also says: “We would like to remind the Commission, which puts forward demands to send some international observers to Azerbaijan to study the state of cultural and religious heritage, that such a mission is needed not in Azerbaijan, but in Armenia. It would be more appropriate if the Commission addressed the issue of the Armenian government’s refusal to allow a UNESCO mission into the country concerning the Azerbaijani cultural and religious heritage in Armenia.”
The report, using the expression “Nagorno-Karabakh,” showed clear disrespect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.
We condemn these racist steps by the Commission, which hinder peace and reconciliation in the region, and call on the United States to take action against the structure’s biased and double-standard activities.
