8/9/2024 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) — International Christian Concern (ICC) recently sent U.S. government officials a formal sanctions request against Azerbaijan and prisons where Armenian prisoners of war and Christians were allegedly tortured. 

ICC filed the sanctions request with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The requested sanctions — which include freezing assets and banning travel to the United States — would hold Azerbaijan accountable for its egregious human rights violations. 

ICC led a comprehensive, monthslong investigation into Azerbaijan’s treatment of Armenian POWs from 2020 to 2021. Researchers pored over hundreds of pages of sworn testimony from victims. They uncovered significant, irrefutable evidence of long-term torture and cruel and unusual punishment supported by the highest levels of the Azeri government.  

“The reported cruelty committed against the POWs was consistent and atrocious,” said ICC’s lead investigator, who discovered gross misconduct by prison officials. “While we recognize the complexities and longstanding hostility between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the blatant attacks and targeting of POWs and Christians were undeniable.” 

The oldest Christian nation in history, Armenia sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, bordered by several nations hostile to its sovereignty. 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 current president, Ilham Aliyev. 

The Aliyev regime has been condemned at the highest international levels for its horrendous human rights record, especially for stirring up genocidal hatred against Armenians and Armenian Christianity.  

Azerbaijan has warred for decades with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, also known as Artsakh. In September 2020, Azerbaijani forces, aided by Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries and drones, attacked Armenian forces stationed in Artsakh.  

A Russia-brokered peace deal brought temporary respite after more than a month of intense fighting. Azerbaijan, however, blocked humanitarian aid to Artsakh for nine months before completely taking over the region in September 2023. This displaced more than 100,000 Armenians. Months after the fall of Artsakh, Azerbaijan was determined to purge the territory of Christian influence, destroying the St. John the Baptist Church in the town of Shusi and the entire Karintak village.   

ICC’s investigation focused on POWs who were imprisoned during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. The sanctions target two military facilities, including the Baku Pre-trial Detention Center, a prison managed by the Ministry of Justice on the outskirts of the capital of Baku. The second was the Military Disciplinary Unit of the Baku Garrison, a military prison belonging to the Ministry of Defense. ICC also requested sanctions against four leaders of the two military facilities where victims were severely and routinely assaulted and beaten by prison guards. 

A U.S. Department of State report in 2022 acknowledged hostilities between the two countries and showed that “Azerbaijani forces engaged in unlawful killings and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of Armenian forces in September.” 

Both countries complained to the European Court of Human Rights, specifically about atrocities committed by the other during the fighting in 2020. According to the State Department’s report, Armenia complained of “unlawful or arbitrary killing; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by members of the security forces; harsh and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention; political prisoners; politically motivated reprisal against individuals outside the country …” 

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCRIF) added Azerbaijan to its 2024 Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) recommendations — the most serious violators of religious freedom.  

“USCIRF documented a significant and alarming increase in the number of prisoners arrested on the basis of religion or belief in Azerbaijan in the year,” USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck said at the launch event of the commission’s annual report. “In addition, authorities are regularly accused of torturing or threatening sexual violence to illicit false confessions from detainees with those perpetrating such violence facing no accountability.” 

The State Department, however, only included Azerbaijan on its lesser “Special Watch List.” 

ICC has reported on the persecution of Armenian Christians for many years. In addition, staff gave emergency aid to families who fled Artsakh during the past year and helped them resettle in Armenia. 

ICC last requested Global Magnitsky sanctions in 2019 against three Iranian judges and Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. 

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org. 

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