On January 4, 2024, the United States added Azerbaijan to a watchlist for religious freedom, following feats for the preservation of Christian heritage after Azerbaijan’s occupation of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), a country with an ethnic Armenian majority, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), a French international news agency headquartered in Paris.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, releasing an annual index of designations, maintained all 12 countries that had been on the previous year’s blacklist, including China, Iran, Pakistan & Saudi Arabia. Other countries on the watchlist include Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros & Vietnam.
In the only change to last year’s designations, Blinken added Azerbaijan to a watchlist, meaning it could join the blacklist, which carries potential sanctions, without improvements. The blacklist, identifying “countries of particular concern,” includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan & Turkmenistan.
In a recent recommendation to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed concerns about the preservation of Christian religious sites in Artsakh. Following Azerbaijan’s military occupation of Artsakh on September 19, 2023, the entire ethnic Armenian population of around 100,000 fled to Armenia, marking a significant displacement of a community that had resided there for centuries. This Commission is appointed by lawmakers & does not set U.S. policy.
USCIRF also voiced alarm over Azerbaijan’s regulations governing all religious practices under President Ilham Aliyev. These include requirements for all religious groups to register & for their literature to be approved by an official body.
Blinken, in a statement, said, “Governments must end abuses such as attacks on members of religious minority communities & their places of worship.”
