ArmInfo. Azerbaijan has been put on the United States' watchlist of countries for severe violations of religious freedom and manifestations of intolerance. AFP news agency reports, referring to the statement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
As the Agency notes, the inclusion of Azerbaijan on a watchlist means that it may join the blacklist, which carries potential sanctions, without improvements.
"In a recent recommendation to the State Department, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed to concerns for the preservation of Christian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, where virtually the entire population of 100,000 ethnic Armenians has fled to Armenia. The commission also voiced alarm over regulations on all religious practice in the Shiite Muslim-majority but largely secular country under strongman President Ilham Aliyev, including a requirement that all religious groups be registered and their literature approved by an official body," the source reports.
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