January 9, 2024 2:08 pm
For the first time, the United States has recognized Azerbaijan as a violator of religious freedom.
Inclusion on the State Department’s second-tier Special Watch List (SWL) subjects the oil-rich Shiite Muslim–majority nation to the possibility of economic sanctions.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called for the Caucasus nation’s censure each year since 2013. Created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), USCIRF’s bipartisan yearly report evaluates “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations independent of US foreign policy concerns and tracks government implementation of its recommendations.
Complicating any consequences, Azerbaijan aligns with US foreign policy in certain areas: It cooperates closely with Israel, is aligned against Iran, and agreed to increase oil exports to Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a brief statement, US secretary of state Antony Blinken kept unchanged all other 2022 designations mandated by the IRFA. Azerbaijan joins Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam on the SWL, cited for “engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.”
Twelve nations—China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—again received designations as first-tier Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).
USCIRF “welcomed” the designation of Azerbaijan. But it stated there was “no justification” for failing to follow its advice to also label India and Nigeria as CPCs.
India was first recommended from 2002–2004 as a CPC, from 2010–2019 for the SWL, and then again from 2020 onward as a CPC. Nigeria was recommended for the SWL from 2003–2008, and as a CPC since 2009.
While the State Department has never included India, former president Donald Trump listed Nigeria on the SWL in 2019 and as a CPC in 2020. President Joe Biden removed it entirely the following year.
USCIRF called for a congressional hearing over these omissions and further criticized the State Department for issuing sanction waivers for CPC violators Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
In a statement to CT, Lilieth Whyte, public outreach chief of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, cited three main factors.
Azerbaijan’s laws place “onerous registration requirements” on religious groups to register nationally, restricting them further in their right to worship freely and select their own clergy. The government physically abuses, arrests, and imprisons religious activists, she added, while conscientious objectors are not permitted to serve their country in accordance with their beliefs.
Not mentioned was Azerbaijan’s months-long blockade of its Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh—which Armenians call “Artsakh”—which culminated in an invasion last September that displaced more than 100,000 people.
At the time, Blinken “urged” Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev to “immediately cease military actions.” In November, assistant secretary of state James O’Brien told a congressional committee that “there cannot be ‘business as usual’” in US relations.
But last December, the State Department press service clarified that cessation of interaction with Azerbaijan would be…
This article was originally published at Christianity Today, on January 8, 2024. Please click here to read the full text.
Posted by Jayson
Categories: Christianity Today, Europe, Published Articles
Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Religious Freedom, USCIRF
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