USCIRF spotlights Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s Armenians
ANCA welcomes USCIRF recommendations for sanctions, right of return and heritage protections for Artsakh Armenians
WASHINGTON—A hearing of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) spotlighted Azerbaijan’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the continued detention and abuse of Armenian hostages, and the unrealized right of Armenian Christians to pilgrimage to their holy sites, many of which have already been destroyed by Azerbaijan.
The session, which followed a February USCIRF fact-finding mission to Azerbaijan, included powerful testimony detailing war crimes, religious oppression and systemic efforts to erase Armenia’s historic presence in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The June 5th hearing, titled “Religious Freedom Conditions in Azerbaijan,” featured participation from USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck and Commissioners Vicky Hartzler, Mohamed Elsanousi and Asif Mahmood. The panel of expert witnesses included Audrey L. Altstadt, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Felix Corley, editor of Forum 18 News Service; Arzu Geybulla, independent journalist and co-founder of the Free Voices Collective; and Husik Ghulyan, lead researcher at Caucasus Heritage Watch.
The ANCA welcomed the hearing and the Commission’s 2025 Annual Report recommendations, which include maintaining Azerbaijan on the State Department’s Special Watch List and urging U.S. sanctions, international monitoring missions and conditional aid based on improvements in religious freedom.
“This hearing pointed a global spotlight on Azerbaijan’s crimes at a critical juncture, underscoring the urgent imperative for the United States to stop enabling Baku’s genocidal policies and start holding the Aliyev regime accountable,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The USCIRF recommendations chart a clear path toward accountability and justice for the Armenians of Artsakh.”
In her opening remarks, Commissioner Vicky Hartzler emphasized the urgent need for U.S. action, offering three key USCIRF policy recommendations, starting off with a call for sanctions on Azerbaijani government agencies and officials involved in severe violations of religious freedom. “Until Azerbaijan makes necessary reforms and holds accountable perpetrating officials who arrest and abuse people for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief, the U.S. government must use its sanctions authority,” stated Hartzler.
She further called for an international observer mission to Artsakh and surrounding areas, stating: “This is not only important in deterring Azerbaijan from destroying Armenian religious sites, but also to pursue a just reconciliation and recognize the impact the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has had on both Armenian and Azerbaijani, Christian and Muslim, religious and cultural heritage.”
And finally, Commissioner Hartzler urged Congress to condition U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan on improvements in religious freedom and continue elevated scrutiny on Azerbaijan’s actions. “The religious freedom situation in Azerbaijan will not improve on its own. It will require a concerted effort by the U.S. government,” stated Hartzler.
USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck reflected on the broader implications: “Many Armenian religious sites, including historic churches, cemeteries and other artifacts, have been destroyed, damaged and remain under threat of destruction or are being repurposed for other religious traditions.”
Commissioner Asif Mahmood emphasized the need for accountability and transparency, particularly regarding Armenian prisoners of war and other hostages: “I know the fundamental rights of Muslims in Azerbaijan are also being violated, but right now, I’m going to more focus especially on Armenians who are under their prison.”
Commissioner Mohamed Elsanousi raised concerns over religious pilgrimage rights: “It is very important, critical, so that Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh—who are like 100,000 people, now refugees in the Republic of Armenia—would have access to pilgrimage…There should be some kind of mechanism to should allow Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to visit their cemeteries and also practice their religions in those churches.”
Felix Corley described the systemic repression targeting Armenian religious prisoners: “Ethnic Armenians who were captured when Azerbaijan overran the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023 faced torture and denigration of their perceived Christian affiliation. Some have been denied access to requested Christian literature; tattoos of crosses on prisoners’ hands appear to be burnt off the skin. Released prisoners of war recount beatings and ethnic slurs based on perceived religious affiliation. Guards have seized neck and wrist crosses from prisoners, broken them and scattered them on the floor.”
Caucasus Heritage Watch lead researcher Husik Ghulyan cited satellite evidence of targeted cultural erasure: “Since the start of our monitoring mission in 2021, we have established that Azerbaijan has destroyed 14 heritage sites, including historic churches and cemeteries—and damaged 14 more. We currently assess 30 cultural properties as facing immediate threat of damage and or destruction.”
Ghulyan warned that Azerbaijan’s redevelopment efforts in Karabakh are accelerating the destruction: “The pace of heritage abuse appeared to accelerate in 2024 as Azerbaijan’s development work gained speed. Much of the damage and destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh to date has been in connection with road work and redevelopment.”
The 2025 USCIRF Annual Report referenced findings from Freedom House and Caucasus Heritage Watch, noting: “Freedom House found Azerbaijan had carried out a ‘comprehensive, methodically implemented strategy to empty Nagorno-Karabakh of its ethnic Armenian population and historical and cultural presence’… and concluded Azerbaijan’s actions constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The report called for targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani officials responsible for violations, the deployment of international observers to document endangered Armenian religious and cultural sites, and legislation to condition U.S. aid on measurable improvements in religious freedom.
The ANCA continues to advocate for the right of return for Armenians of Artsakh, the release of all Armenian POWs and political prisoners, accountability for Azerbaijani war crimes and religious persecution through the use of international sanctions and other mechanisms, and international protection for Armenian cultural heritage under threat of destruction in Azerbaijan-occupied Artsakh.
Armenian Americans can visit anca.org/action to contact their members of Congress and urge support for legislative and diplomatic measures to hold Azerbaijan accountable and defend religious freedom.
Video of the full USCIRF hearing is available at: https://youtu.be/DNr6TyXT-ZY
All these conferences and hearings in U.S. Congress about the plight of the ethnically cleansed Armenians of Artsakh and the destruction of Armenian heritage in Artsakh, have produced nothing and constantly fall on deaf ears. They have remained a talking shop and nothing else, because geopolitics, national interests and especially indifference reign supreme. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is impotent and its hearings and reports have not resulted in sanctions and other punitive action by the U.S. Government, whether by the U.S. Congress or by U.S. Presidents. The decades-long persecutions, massacres, exoduses and ethnic cleansings of Christians – including Armenians, Yazidis and other religious groups in West Asia, have not resulted in any meaningful action, let alone in sanctions. The perpetrators and persecutors have gotten away with their crimes, and the end result is the huge diminishment or destruction of Armenian, Christian and other religious communities in that region. The only outcome of this hearing, is that the Aliyev regime must have added these people in the photo to its extremely long “persona non grata list”, as “pro-Armenia” and “anti-Azerbaijan” “agitators” for certain (anyone of Armenian-descent is automatically banned from entering Azerbaijan anyway).