Baptist Standard: The number of religious activists imprisoned in Azerbaijan has sharply increased, and Armenian religious sites have been destroyed

Azerbaijan, which hosted a United Nations climate summit last month, has come under international scrutiny for human rights and religious freedom violations, Baptist Standard writes.

Outside observers repeatedly have raised concerns about religious freedom in the former Soviet country. In the last two years, the number of religious activists who are being held as political prisoners has increased sharply, according to Azerbaijani watchdog Institute for Peace and Democracy.

The country has strengthened its army and recently carried out what the European Parliament called an “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenians, who trace their heritage to the establishment of the oldest Christian nation, have called attention to Azerbaijani destruction of their religious sites in the region. These concerns helped Azerbaijan land on the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom’s 2024 “countries of particular concern” list, its designation for governments that engage in or tolerate “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom. As noted, a group of activists have called on the international community, who attended the climate summit, to demand the release of Armenian and other political prisoners held by the Azerbaijani government.

The group has also called for sanctions, the right of return for “Artsakh Armenians to Indigenous lands,” an end to anti-Armenian destruction of cultural heritage and propaganda and divestment from Azerbaijani oil.