Azerbaijan Government’s financial assistance to religious communities three times less than 3 years ago

Religious communities who have officially been recognized in Azerbaijan will be allocated AZN 1.8 million (approximately USD 1.05 million) in state funding.

The Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, issued a decree regarding the matter on 20 June.

Under the decree, the Board of the Caucasus Muslims will receive AZN 1 million (USD 588 000), the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Baku-based Mountain Jews’ community will be allocated AZN 0.25 million (USD 147 000) each. The Baku-based European Jews’ community, as well as the Apostolic Prefecture of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Albanian-Udinian Christian community, will be granted AZN 0,1 million (USD 58.8 thousand) each.

The government’s financial assistance to the religious communities (considering the USD equivalent) is three times lower than that of three years ago.

In comparison, in 2014 the government allocated AZN 2.5 million (about USD 3.2 million according to the exchange rate at the time) to support the religious organizations in the country.