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Committee Chairman denounces biased statement of US State Department on Azerbaijan, rejects its findings

05 January 2024 21:31 (UTC +04:00)

The State Committee on Religious Associations of Azerbaijan commented on the US State Department's inclusion of several countries, including Azerbaijan, in its "special watch list" due to serious violations of religious freedom or tolerance thereof, APA reports.

The Chairman of the Committee Mubariz Gurbanli told APA that the United States has an agency called the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Every year, the commission prepares a report on the religious situation in the countries of the world:

"USCIRF was established as an independent federal government commission in the United States in 1998, which monitors violations of religious freedom at the so-called international level and makes appropriate recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. Commission members are appointed by the President, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The State Department makes a statement about the religious situation in individual countries based on that report. The Commission on International Religious Freedom has been spreading biased and wrong information against Azerbaijan in its reports for several years. Many times, relevant statements were made regarding the reports issued by this Commission, our position regarding the rumor-like and fictitious issues that they showed, which are not based on any facts, was brought to their attention, meetings were held, and these issues were discussed. The USCIRF released a wide-ranging special report on our country in December 2023. All issues in the report have been extensively analyzed by us. On December 5, we sent a letter to that Commission and expressed our objection to them that the issues raised in the report are untrue and biased. The opinion expressed by the US State Department in the statement published in the press regarding the inclusion of Azerbaijan in the watch list also refers to the document prepared by that Commission. As I said, we stated that the document of that Commission is completely slanderous. The statement to include Azerbaijan in the watch list is wrong and ridiculous. Voicing such an opinion based on false information at the level of the US State Department is once again a clear example of hypocritical American policy. This is nothing but slander against Azerbaijan."