Author: Karlen Baghdasarian

The State Security Service of Azerbaijan has announced that it has detained two persons who allegedly carried out intelligence-disruptive activities on the assignment of the special services of Armenia.

As per the respective statement, “As a result of the taken measures, Rashad Ahmadov Ahmad (born in 1980), who was suspected of committing treason and planning to commit acts of terrorism and sabotage in Azerbaijan by settling in the territory of a third country and carrying out the tasks of Armenian special services, was detained and brought to criminal responsibility in the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

“It was determined that Rashad Ahmadov [together with Rovshan Amirov (born in 1991)] fulfilled the tasks given by the special services of the mentioned country to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, state security and defense capability of the Republic of Azerbaijan by engaging in secret cooperation in exchange for financial interest. Based on the instructions given to him, together with other persons, he prepared video materials containing open calls to create enmity on ethnic and religious grounds in Azerbaijan and to break up the territorial integrity of the Republic. Those video materials were created by the Armenian special services and shared on Youtube channels operating in Azerbaijani language and other social networks under their control. Rashad Ahmadov, under the auspices of the Armenian special services, arranged for the distribution of 200 fake maps with fragmented descriptions of the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, specially designed by the head of the Yerevan State University Garnik Asatryan and others, among the citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the purpose of ethnic separatism,” also reads the statement disseminated by the Azerbaijani mass media.

Baku has advised the European Union (EU) ambassador to Armenia "not to interfere in the affairs of Azerbaijan."

"The EU ambassador's attempt to interfere in Azerbaijan's internal affairs is unacceptable," said Ayhan Hajizadeh, spokesperson of the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, answering the question about the statements of Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia.

Referring to the statement by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, Wiktorin said that the rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh should be ensured, and an international mechanism should be created for this.

Hajizadeh stated that "Azerbaijan's position on this matter is well known."

"The statements of the ambassador of the European Union, which are an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan, contrary to the norms and principles of international law, are unacceptable. The Karabakh region is the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, and, like other national minorities in Azerbaijan, the rights and security of Armenians living in the country will be ensured within the framework of Azerbaijani legislation. No one should interfere with the efforts of the Azerbaijani side to dialogue with Armenian residents. It is necessary to put an end to preconceived notions against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan," said the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

The US Department of State has released the 2022 Religious Freedom Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In particular, in the report, Azerbaijan is on the list of countries under special watch.

In 2022, the state of religious freedom in Azerbaijan had negative dynamics. The government continued to exercise considerable control over religious figures, continuing to prosecute and detain them.

It is noted in the report that at the end of last year, 19 people were imprisoned in Azerbaijan for their religious beliefs. Local human rights organizations also say that the government continued to use physical violence, detain, and imprison religious activists, and that many of the arrests of religious activists—including on drug charges—were political in nature.

The report points as well to the destruction of the Armenian spiritual heritage by Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh territories now under the control of Baku.

International bodies and other organizations continue to question the willingness of the Azerbaijani government to protect and preserve the religious and cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories under Azerbaijani control, the report adds.

In February, the then minister of culture of Azerbaijan Anar Karimov  announced the creation of a working group to remove the "fake" Armenian apostolic inscriptions from churches. But apparently, after international outrage, the government abandoned the plan, and in March, the European Parliament condemned Azerbaijan's continued policy of destruction and denial of Armenian cultural heritage in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, the report notes.

USCIRF recommends that the US government provide funding to the United States Agency for International Development and the US embassy in Azerbaijan to restore, preserve, and protect places of worship and other religious or cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.