The Republic of Azerbaijan, as all modern democratic countries safeguards and protects the principles of freedom of thought and speech, freedom of conscience in daily life. The work done in this area has been a focus area of the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan as one of the most important elements of life, and Azerbaijani state takes the necessary preventive measures in order to protect religious freedom nationwide and worldwide, supports all efforts in this direction.

Azerbaijan has always played an active role in the international organizations in which it represented, pursued a policy aimed at safeguarding our national interests and conveying the truth about our country to the world. In this regard, the State Committee also closely cooperates with various international organizations, holds meetings with their representatives and organizes conferences. Meanwhile, factsheets published by various international organizations and foreign countries are continuously monitored and analyzed.

Unfortunately, certain international and foreign organizations in some cases disseminate false information about the religious situation in our country, which is either bias or prejudiced. However, the State Committee on Religious Associations constantly highlights the actual situation, periodically disseminates information regarding with current state-religion model in Azerbaijan, preserving and implementation of freedom of religious beliefs in events holding countrywide and worldwide as well as in local and foreign mass media. 

One of the foreign organizations that the State Committee cooperates with is the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom – USCIRF. The State Committee has expressed its position on the annual report for 2020 by USCIRF of current year as well.

In recent days, USCIRF has released a factsheet entitled “Destruction of Cemeteries”.

This factsheet outlines international human rights law that defines the obligations of governments to protect the cultural heritage of religious communities’ cemeteries. Additionally, the factsheet describes specific examples of cemetery neglect, vandalism, desecration, and destruction at the hands of non-state actors and state-sponsored entities from 2018 to the present and allegations related to Azerbaijan, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and the Jewish cemeteries are included in the factsheet.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the false allegations made in the factsheet do not reflect the real situation and refer to false information disseminated by Armenians, against the real attitude of the Azerbaijani side to historical and religious sites, including gravestones. Despite the fact that the factsheet covers the period after 2018, the “Azerbaijan” section repeats the "allegations on Nakhchivan and Baku" dating back to the early 2000s and the vandalism of Armenia in relation to Azerbaijani cemeteries is mentioned superficially, and although the document has a separate subheading called "Jewish cemeteries", it did not include information about the acts of vandalism against the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and Jewish cemeteries in Armenia in 2020 and 2021.

We inform that, in general, in the history of Azerbaijan's independence, no any destruction of cemeteries or graveyards recorded. Even during the 44-day war, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces did not carry out any attacks on enemy’s civilian objects, as well as religious buildings. Moreover, foreign journalists have repeatedly confirmed this fact. As an example, Spanish Journalist Pablo Gonzales who was in Khankendi and other cities of Azerbaijan under Armenian occupation in the heart of battle notes that the Azerbaijani Army attacked only military targets. “The Azerbaijanis tried to strike at specific targets, for example, at air defense systems. When the city was bombed, they purposefully did not touch civilian objects, including hotels and places with a large concentration of civilians. They did not even shoot at the presidential palace, although it was very easy to get it if one wanted to: the building was clearly visible.”

Armenian Armed Forces destroyed, looted and changed the origin of hundreds of religious sites (both Muslim and Christian) and it was visible during the inspection of the liberated territories immediately after the end of the military operations. The factsheet emphasizes that although destruction of cemeteries and other places belonging to Azerbaijanis, the deliberate shelling of the cemetery by the Armenian armed forces during a funeral in the Tartar district during the last war, the death of four people, and the injury of four more were confirmed by Human Rights Watch, strangely, this information was included in the "Azerbaijan" subheading which is considered as an evidence of prejudice against our country. All of the above and the absence of a section under the "Armenia" subheading in the factsheet is an indicator of how pro-Armenian and biased this material is.

Unfortunately, the factsheet does not contain information about ethnic cleansing and genocide, as well as urbicide in the UN-recognized territories of Azerbaijan, which were held under occupation by Armenia for almost 30 years, the Armenianization of Azerbaijani toponyms, the destruction, along with hundreds of historical and cultural sites, over 60 mosques, about 200 sanctuaries, desecration of religious values by Armenian side which kept cattle in dilapidated mosques, as well as the fact of Gregorianization or destruction of Christian churches belonging to the cultural heritage of Caucasian Albania or the Orthodox Church.

Armenians even destroyed cemeteries during the occupation. As you know, cemeteries, like places of worship and other holy sites, are an essential element of the manifestation of the right to freedom of religion or belief. They have grossly violated the rights of Azerbaijani civilians in the eyes of the world community for 30 years. It's no secret that during the occupation, the citizens of Azerbaijan were deprived of the opportunity to visit the graves of their relatives, and in total, over 900 Azerbaijani cemeteries were either completely destroyed, or the remains of the deceased were exhumed, desecrated, and the gravestones were looted. As it is known from the press, the Armenian side even dug a trench between the gravestones of the two sisters and separated them, mined the areas around the cemeteries, thus, dozens of our citizens died.

During the occupation of Shusha, they shot down the statues of cultural figures Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Khurshidbanu Natavan and Bulbul, destroyed the museum-mausoleum complex of Azerbaijani poet and socio-political figure Molla Panah Vagif as well as dozens of exhibits, tombstones of Khurshidbanu Natavan in Aghdam city, Tombs of Panahali khan (19th century) and Mehdigulu khan, 4 tombs of the 19th century including the tombs of Ibrahimkhalil khan (19th century) and Ugurlu bey, a local architectural sites located in the Garaagaj cemetery. The vandalism acts were carried out in the historical Azerbaijani lands of Yerevan and Zangazur regions as well.

With these crimes, the opposing side grossly violated the "International Pact on Civil and Political Rights", “Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention 1954”, “European Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage of 1992”, “Convention for the Protection of the World and a UNESCO natural heritage of 1972”, and other requirements of international norms and standards.

Along with all cultural and religious sites, Azerbaijan has always been the most interested party in sending an independent and comprehensive international mission to the region for relevant documentation of the destruction of the cemeteries in the liberated territories. It is no coincidence that, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan, two servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan were arrested during the war for "committing insulting acts by destroying tombstones belonging to Armenians." However, Armenian side has not filed any single criminal lawsuit against any person who destroyed Azerbaijani-Muslim cemeteries during 30 years.

Unfortunately, during the 30 years of occupation, several relevant influential foreign and international organizations, including UNESCO, were indifferent to the issue, and despite the demands of the Azerbaijani side, have not sent a fact-finding mission on these issues. However, Azerbaijan maintains a constructive dialogue with international organizations, including UNESCO.

Immediately after the end of the military operations, the Azerbaijani government announced that all religious sites destroyed by the Armenian Armed Forces in the liberated territories would be restored, and on the instructions of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, based on the “Great Return” program, a large-scale restoration process was launched under the plan for the socio-economic development of those territories - the Coordination Headquarters, working groups, including a working group on historical and cultural monuments, cultural institutions were created, and a Strategic Action Plan was made. Along with government agencies, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation is closely involved in the restoration process as well, and restoration projects are currently being successfully implemented. At present, restoration projects are successfully being carried out. For instance, Azerbaijan has restored the statues of the above-mentioned cultural figures in Shusha, the museum-mausoleum complex of Molla Panah Vagif, opened the Vagif Poetry Days, launched the construction of Zangilan and Lachin international airports, and carried out a test flight at Fuzuli international airport and so forth.

Along with representatives of the diplomatic corps in our country, international organizations such as ICESCO, the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (CCTS), the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, the foreign journalists carried out missions in the liberated areas, visited the cemetery in the Jabrayil district, which is an example of acts of vandalism committed by the enemy against the cemeteries, and called on the world community to condemn the Armenian atrocities they had witnessed.

In conclusion, deeply regretting the prejudiced and biased information, we reiterate that having assumed the responsibility of analyzing and assessing the state of freedom of conscience worldwide, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has included some issues in the factsheet without investigating them. The commission has been spreading baseless allegations about Azerbaijan for years, repeating unverified information, and each time we are forced to display the facts that those allegations are biased.

The State Committee on Religious Associations once again invites the USCIRF and other relevant bodies to cooperate in order to prepare more objective and accurate reports in this sphere in the future.