Persecution watchdog calls for US sanctions on Azerbaijani ‘torturers’

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are seen in the center of the town of Goris on October 1, 2023, before being evacuated in various Armenian cities. A United Nations mission arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 1, 2023, Azerbaijan said, after almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population fled since Baku recaptured the breakaway enclave. Armenians, who had controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku following a one-day Azerbaijani offensive last week. | DIEGO HERRERA CARCEDO/AFP via Getty Images

The persecution watchdog International Christian Concern has requested that the U.S. government impose sanctions on several Azerbaijani officials accused of torturing Armenian Christians. The request, based on findings from its investigation, invokes the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets individuals implicated in human rights abuses by freezing their assets and banning their travel to the West.

The ICC said in a statement shared with The Christian Post that its extensive investigation, which analyzed sworn testimonies from victims held under Azerbaijani custody between 2020 and 2021, uncovered systematic abuses.

“The torture of Christian POWs was consistent and atrocious,” stated ICC’s lead investigator. Despite the complex backdrop of the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, the collected evidence highlighted undeniable instances of religious persecution and severe human rights violations, ICC reported.

ICC’s months-long investigation targeted officials and facilities involved in the abuse of POWs during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Sanctions were specifically requested against the Baku Pre-trial Detention Center, managed by the Ministry of Justice, and the Military Disciplinary Unit of the Baku Garrison, under the Ministry of Defense. ICC sought sanctions also against four leaders at these locations for their roles in the severe and routine mistreatment of prisoners.

Armenia, the oldest Christian nation in history, sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, bordered by several nations hostile to its sovereignty, the watchdog explained. “One of these is its eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, an ethnically Turkish and predominantly Muslim country led by the longstanding dictatorship of the Aliyev family and President Ilham Aliyev.”

On Sept. 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a rapid military offensive to seize control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region predominantly inhabited by 120,000 ethnic Armenian Christians. Described by Baku as an “anti-terrorist operation,” the military assault led to the forced dissolution of the ethnic Armenian enclave, officially declared by Azerbaijan on Jan. 1.

“The U.S. Magnitsky Laws are an incredibly powerful and effective tool our government created in the Soviet era to target individuals in rogue states involved in human rights abuses,” Jeff King, president of ICC, said.

He added, “Individuals involved in torture hide behind the state, which could care less about what the U.S. or the international human rights community has to say. The Magnitsky laws allow us to go after individuals — they can no longer hide behind the State.”

King, however, acknowledged that while these laws are powerful, “understanding how to work with the U.S. government to sanction individuals that persecute Christians is something that can take an organization years or decades to learn.”

The European Centre for Law & Justice has also accused Azerbaijan of conducting “cultural genocide” in Nagorno-Karabakh, documenting the systematic destruction of Armenian Christian heritage in that region.

In a report, the ECLJ detailed extensive damage to religious sites and artifacts, a strategy aimed at erasing Armenian presence from the region. The ongoing destruction and falsification of historical ties by Azerbaijani authorities were sharply criticized by the ECLJ, calling for a stronger international response to preserve the region’s cultural and religious heritage.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a long-standing dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was recognized internationally as part of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan even though it had a majority Armenian population. It was controlled by ethnic Armenians as the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state not recognized by the United Nations.

Before the recently concluded Paris Olympics, the Switzerland-based human rights group Christian Solidarity International had urged the International Olympic Committee to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan due to the ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians in Nagorno Karabakh.

CSI advocated for Azerbaijani athletes to participate only as neutrals, echoing broader calls to address atrocity crimes committed by nations. In letters to IOC President Thomas Bach and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, CSI sought collaboration between the IOC and the U.N.'s OHCHR to establish clear punitive criteria for countries involved in such atrocities.

CSI President John Eibner accused President Aliyev of orchestrating a military invasion after imposing a severe blockade on Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenian Christian community. He cited a Freedom House report claiming Azerbaijan implemented a systematic strategy to expel the ethnic Armenian population from the region, branding the act as genocidal.

In its 2024 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom highlighted increasing religious freedom violations within Azerbaijan.

The USCIRF report, for the first time, recommended that Azerbaijan be listed as a “country of particular concern,” a designation reserved for nations engaged in severe violations of religious freedom. This followed a trend of negative conditions post-Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including threats to religious sites and discriminatory actions against Christian and Muslim communities alike.