Western Azerbaijan Community

The US Commission on Religious Freedom recently released its latest annual report on the state of religious freedom around the world.

Part of the report about Azerbaijan is completely biased and unfounded. In the report, the main source of statements about Azerbaijan are the works of three Armenian radical nationalist authors (L. Khachaturian, Kh. Ghulyan, S. Bokcheriyan), financed by such extremist organizations as Cornell University in the USA and in fact, the "Pan-Armenian Benevolent Union" and the "Aragats Foundation" "The display of defamation proves that this report is biased. In addition, the inclusion of Daniel Ashbakhian, an employee of the Armenian Assembly of America, among the main authors of the report leaves no doubt about the true purpose of the document in question.

The authors of the report did not limit themselves to slandering Azerbaijan; they also called on the US State Department to classify Azerbaijan into some fictitious category.

The most striking evidence of the injustice of this commission created by the US Congress is that the commission does not monitor Armenia at all and does not publish reports on this country. It turns out that Armenia “successfully” dealt with the matter of religious freedom, completely expelling the Azerbaijanis from there on the basis of national and religious hatred and destroying about 300 mosques and all other religious and cultural heritage belonging to the Azerbaijanis. From this it is clear that the activities of the Commission are Islamophobic in nature and promote injustice towards Muslims.

The Western Azerbaijan Community rejects this report and calls on the State Department and the US Congress to refrain from attempting to put pressure on Azerbaijan through worthless means. The community demands that the US government address the real problem in the field of religious freedom - the problem of the destroyed Azerbaijani religious heritage in Armenia, make appropriate efforts to ensure the return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to their homes in conditions of safety and dignity, as well as to protect their rights and freedoms, including religious freedom, upon return.