Murders, Torture, Repression Occurring in Azerbaijan: U.S. State Department

The U.S. Department of State published a report on Tuesday regarding the state of human rights around the world in 2020, which again targets several countries, including Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The report was presented at a press conference by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It mentions violations of human rights against Armenians, specifically related to the war unleashed against the Armenian people with complete support from Turkey on September 27, 2020, by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The document also emphasizes serious human rights concerns in Azerbaijan, including "extrajudicial or arbitrary killings, torture, arbitrary detention, cruel and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions, and more. Key human rights issues related to armed clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh include extrajudicial killings, civilian casualties, and inhumane treatment."

Included in the human rights violations document are two videos posted on social media last October, in which Azerbaijani soldiers are seen "humiliating and executing two Armenian detainees in the city of Hadrut." The videos were subsequently assessed as credible and authentic by independent experts from Bellingcat, BBC, and the Atlantic Council’s digital forensic lab.

Another example cited in the report relates to an Amnesty International report documenting "the beheading of two Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani forces." The report states that the Azerbaijani government has not prosecuted or punished a significant number of officials who have violated human rights, and that this impunity remains a problem.