The 2026 annual report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which summarizes data from 2025, has condemned Azerbaijan for the destruction of Armenian religious heritage and numerous violations of religious freedom.

According to monumentwatch.org, a website that monitors the cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh, the report states that the Azerbaijani government committed gross violations of religious freedom in 2025. Accordingly, Azerbaijani authorities have implemented the country’s highly restrictive law on freedom of conscience and religious practice, which criminalizes unregistered religious activity and grants the government full control over registered religious organizations.

The report states that historic Armenian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas remain under threat following Azerbaijan’s re-establishment of control over the territories in 2020 and 2023.

As of July 2025, satellite imagery revealed eight destroyed and another 10 damaged Armenian religious sites, including churches, cemeteries, and other cultural monuments.

In addition, relatives of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan report that these prisoners are denied access to religious items, including Bibles, although the Azerbaijani government maintains that detainees have access to religious materials.

The USCIRF has recommended that the US government place Azerbaijan on the Special Watch List for serious violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act. The Commission makes such a recommendation to countries whose governments have committed or tolerated serious violations of religious freedom, even if those abuses do not yet reach the threshold of being designated as a Country of Particular Concern. According to the report, Azerbaijan, one of 11 countries on this list (Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Turkey, Uzbekistan), is characterized by these problems: discrimination against religious minorities, restrictions on places of worship, and restrictions on freedom of religious expression.

In addition, the USCIRF directed the US government to impose targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani state agencies and on officials responsible for gross violations of religious freedom, by freezing the assets of such individuals and/or prohibiting their entry into the US under the human rights financial and visa authorities, citing specific violations of religious freedom.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1038013