News - US Commission on International Religious Freedom calls for funding to protect Karabakh cultural, religious sites

In its 2024 Annual Report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) calls on the US government to fund the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Embassy in Azerbaijan in order to restore, preserve, and protect places of worship and other religious or cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas. The report recommends that the US government put Azerbaijan on the list of Countries of Particular Concern for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined in the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The report highlights that in 2023, the government of Azerbaijan continued to pose a threat to religious sites in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, the report reminds that the chairman of the official State Committee for Work on Religious Affairs of Azerbaijan, Mubariz Gurbanli, urged Armenian Apostolic Church priests to leave the Dadivank Monastery located in the Kalbajar region, falsely claiming that they had no ties to this religious site.