ICC Files Human Rights Sanctions Request Against Azerbaijan
International Christian Concern (ICC) recently sent U.S. government officials a formal sanctions request against Azerbaijan and prisons where Armenian prisoners of war and Christians were allegedly tortured.
ICC filed the sanctions request with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The requested sanctions — which include freezing assets and banning travel to the United States — would hold Azerbaijan accountable for its egregious human rights violations.
ICC led a comprehensive, monthslong investigation into Azerbaijan’s treatment of Armenian POWs from 2020 to 2021. Researchers pored over hundreds of pages of sworn testimony from victims. They uncovered significant, irrefutable evidence of long-term torture and cruel and unusual punishment supported by the highest levels of the Azeri government.
“The reported cruelty committed against the POWs was consistent and atrocious,” said ICC’s lead investigator, who discovered gross misconduct by prison officials. “While we recognize the complexities and longstanding hostility between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the blatant attacks and targeting of POWs and Christians were undeniable.”
The oldest Christian nation in history, Armenia sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, bordered by several nations hostile to its sovereignty. One of these is its eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, an ethnically Turkish and predominantly Muslim country led by the longstanding dictatorship of the Aliyev family and current president, Ilham Aliyev.
The Aliyev regime has been condemned at the highest international levels for its horrendous human rights record, especially for stirring up genocidal hatred against Armenians and Armenian Christianity.
Azerbaijan has warred for decades with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, also known as Artsakh. In September 2020, Azerbaijani forces, aided by Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries and drones, attacked Armenian forces stationed in Artsakh.
