US State Department authorised to brazenly lie Armenian trace in anti-Azerbaijani lies

On January 5, 2024, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the country’s Orthodox Christian community on Christmas. The president noted that in Azerbaijan, known for its rich traditions of tolerance, representatives of different nations and religions have lived in peace, mutual respect and trust for centuries.

"We appreciate the ethnoreligious variety, which is one of the predominant qualities of our society, as a great achievement of our statehood, consider the preservation of the prevailing atmosphere of democratic coexistence in the country, propaganda and promotion of progressive public values based on the principles of humanism and tolerance as one of the priority directions of our state policy," the president’s congratulatory message reads.

It is a striking coincidence, but on January 5 the message came that the US State Department included Azerbaijan in the list of "violators of religious freedom." Blinken himself signed it. Yes, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when publishing the annual index, retained all 12 countries that were blacklisted last year, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The only change is that Blinken added Azerbaijan to the watch list, which means that Azerbaijan will join the blacklist, which entails potential sanctions.

In other words, we again see an attempt by the US to speak with Azerbaijan in the language of lies, blackmail and ultimatums. This is an erroneous policy of the "main world hegemon". And for many reasons. Starting from the fact that the US is a state that has not contributed in any way to the triumph of international law, peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. For all the years of occupation of our lands by Armenia, the US has never imposed sanctions on it. On the contrary, the discriminatory 907th Amendment was applied against Azerbaijan. In addition, the US annually allocated official aid to the Karabakh separatists.

Besides, the US has always insisted that Azerbaijan, when implementing large regional projects, should lay them through Armenia. Also, the US demanded that Azerbaijan give Karabakh separatists some kind of "status".  Even after Azerbaijan's victory in the 44-day war, the State Department continued to make statements that proved the American side's complete misunderstanding of the new realities.

We have seen exactly the same behaviour from the State Department now. Amazingly, the US State Department has become a tool of domestic political struggle. Yes, the flirtation with the Armenian Diaspora of the United States by the Democrats in power has reached a new level. And here it is appropriate to add that the above-mentioned report of the State Department was compiled based on data provided by the public service of the state commission, headed by Daniella Ashbakhyan, who was one of the directors of the Armenian Assembly of America, the largest Armenian lobbying organization in the United States, which gilded the pen of more than one senator and congressman. It is quite obvious that she was guided solely by the factor of her nationality, deliberately denigrating Azerbaijan.

Naturally, it is for this reason that the State Department report did not say anything about the fact that the Armenian occupants destroyed 64 mosques on the territory of Azerbaijan. These were crimes not only against an entire people, but also against religion as such and its monuments. But, of course, Ashbakhyan did everything to hide the truth. As a result, the shameful report of the State Department did not say anything about the fact that the Armenian occupants used some Azerbaijani mosques as places for keeping livestock, including pigs.

It makes sense to add here that the State Commission on Religious Freedom also planned to include India in the report. But, in the end, this was not done – the State Department did not mention Hindus who destroy Muslims in its report. It is understandable – India is now a friend and ally of the United States in their confrontation with China. So, as we can see, there is a frankly selective, biased and purely political aspect in making a shameful decision. Its absurdity also lies in the fact that in 2010 a World Religious Forum was held in Baku, which was attended by Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II. And then he was received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. During that meeting, the importance of the summit held in Baku with the participation of world religious leaders was noted. They also stressed the importance of such meetings to strengthen interreligious ties and expand contacts between religious leaders.

But that wasn't all. The delegation headed by the Catholicos of All Armenians, accompanied by the entire Armenian delegation, then visited the Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator in Baku, the same one that still stands intact in the very centre of Baku. Armenian prayers and hymns were sung in the church at that time. But, of course, nothing was said about this important point, which proves the absurdity of the accusations against our country, in the State Department report.

The reality is that there are seven Jewish confessional communities in Azerbaijan alone. Synagogues function in Baku, Guba (in the Girmizi Gasaba village) and Oghuz. Baku city, by the way, has the largest synagogue in the whole Caucasus. Blinken - an ethnic Jew, by the way, could have visited these synagogues when he came to Baku. And he would have been told that Jews, as well as representatives of all other nationalities and religions, live in peace, joy and well-being in Azerbaijan.

By the way, the Chief Rabbi of Ashkenazi Jews of Azerbaijan Shneor Segal has already stated about it. According to him, there are no problems with freedom of religion in Azerbaijan, there is not only freedom but also support.

But what is happening in Armenia, for the sake of which this bad-smelling provocation was conceived? Ethnic cleansing was carried out in that country, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were expelled from that country. They are still unable to return to their homes. Official Yerevan is carefully avoiding this topic. Not only this one. It is a fact that the Jewish community of Yerevan had to demand that the Armenian authorities take action and neutralize the vandals of the local youth wing of the terrorist organization ASALA, which claims to be the followers of terrorists. This happened after this cell had made two attempts to set fire to a synagogue in Yerevan.

The Chief Rabbi of Armenia, Gershon Burstein, then told Armenian TV Channel Five how the arson of the Yerevan synagogue took place: "For 40 minutes they tried to light a fire, at first they had little gasoline, then they brought more." That arson attack in Yerevan was the second attack on the country's only Jewish religious building.  The first occurred on October 3, 4 days before the invasion of Hamas militants in southern Israel. But, as we can see, none of this was reflected in the State Department's report. Through the publication of which the United States has only consolidated the reputation of a country that does not take an objective position towards Azerbaijan. This means that the reports of the State Department and other statements from the American side will not weigh our country.

P.S. What about Blinken's invitation to the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to continue the negotiation process in Washington? It seems that after the State Department's attack on our country, Blinken will have to call President Aliyev again and wiggle his way out of explanations, as we have already seen in the case of O'Brien....