FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

===============================================Tuesday 22 February 2005
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: “INHUMAN” SENTENCE ON RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

Jehovah’s Witness Areg Hovhanesyan, has been jailed for four years by a
court in the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic, for refusing to do
military service – even though he stated that he would do
alternative, non-military, service. Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan, the
Defence Minister, insisted to Forum 18 News Service that “it doesn’t
depend on me – according to our law of Nagorno-Karabakh there is no
alternative service, so they are sentenced in line with the law.” But
General Ohanyan noted that, in individual cases, provision has been made
for religious conscientious objectors to do military service in non-combat
roles. He quoted the case of a Baptist, Gagik Mirzoyan, who refused to
fight in the army despite pressure from the Armenian Apostolic Church’s
military chaplain. “He is now serving (…) without arms and without
swearing the military oath. Otherwise he’s doing everything the other
conscripts do. He’s now content.” Baptist sources, who preferred not
to be identified, confirmed to Forum 18 that Mirzoyan was happy with his
terms of service.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: “INHUMAN” SENTENCE ON RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Rustam Khachatryan, the lawyer for Jehovah’s Witness Areg Hovhanesyan, has
condemned as “inhuman” the four year sentence handed down on his
client on 16 February by a court in Stepanakert, the capital of the
unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic, for refusing military service on
grounds of his religious faith. “Areg’s family lives very modestly and
to lose their eldest surviving son to prison for such a long time is very
harsh,” Khachatryan told Forum 18 News Service from the Armenian
capital Yerevan on 21 February. “Areg was one of five children, but
one sister and brother were killed during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in
1992 when a bomb landed on them as they played in the street.” He said
he and Hovhanesyan have not yet decided whether to lodge an appeal.

Hovhanesyan, who is 18 and from a Jehovah’s Witness family in Stepanakert,
told the court he was prepared to do an alternative, non-military service.
But, in the absence of such alternative service in Nagorno-Karabakh, he was
sentenced on 16 February under Article 327 Part 3 of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Criminal Code, which punishes evasion of military service “in
conditions of martial law, in war conditions or during military
actions” with a sentence of between four and eight years.
(Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted the criminal code introduced in Armenia in
2003.) Hovhanesyan was detained after the verdict was announced.

Khachatryan described Judge Stepanyan, who heard the case, as a “good
man”. “He said during the trial that he didn’t want to sentence
Hovhanesyan but had to because of the law.” He also praised the
prosecutor. But Khachatryan insists his client “should never have been
tried on the basis of his faith”. He blames the recent presidential
decree extending the military state in Karabakh until 1 January 2006 which
allowed the heavy sentence to be imposed. Although a ceasefire with
Azerbaijan has been in place since 1994, the conflict over the territory
remains unresolved.

Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan, Defence Minister of the unrecognised
republic, insisted that those who cannot serve in the armed forces on
grounds of conscience have to be dealt with under the law. “It doesn’t
depend on me – according to our law of Nagorno-Karabakh there is no
alternative service, so they are sentenced in line with the law,” he
told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 21 February. “Those who refuse to
serve in the defence of our homeland are putting our republic at
risk.”

Asked why – given that Nagorno-Karabakh claims to abide by
international human rights norms – Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who
cannot serve in the armed forces could not do alternative civilian service,
for example in hospitals, he responded: “According to international
norms, citizens should have this right, but we’re in a military situation
so we can’t afford to do this. Besides, hospitals here are also considered
military.”

General Ohanyan said that, were Nagorno-Karabakh to allow an alternative
non-military service, the numbers of those wanting to do it would rise. But
he promised to consider the possibility.

He noted that in individual cases, his armed forces have made provision for
believers who cannot fight on grounds of conscience to work within the
military in non-combat roles. He pointed to the case of the young Baptist
Gagik Mirzoyan, who refused to fight after conscription into the army
despite pressure from his commander and the Armenian Apostolic Church’s
military chaplain (see F18News 6 January 2005
). “He is now serving
in Hadrut region without arms and without swearing the military oath,”
Ohanyan told Forum 18. “Otherwise he’s doing everything the other
conscripts do. He’s now content.”

General Ohanyan’s assertion that Mirzoyan was happy with his terms of
service was confirmed by Baptist sources. “He’s serving without
weapons and without the oath – that’s how a Christian should
serve,” one Baptist who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18
on 21 February.

Ohanyan insisted that Mirzoyan – who was called up on 6 December 2004
– had never been beaten while in the hands of the army, despite Baptist
insistence that his unit commander and the chaplain, Fr Petros Yezegyan,
had beaten him on separate occasions in December. “We conducted an
investigation into these allegations and I want to assure you he was never
beaten,” Ohanyan told Forum 18.

Although in earlier years the terms of martial law – renewed annually
since 1992 – included the banning of the activity of “religious sects
and unregistered organisations”, Khachatryan told Forum 18 that the
current martial law decree contains no such ban. Although in recent years
activity by Protestant Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses has on occasion
been obstructed (see eg. F18News 27 September 2004
), both the Baptists and
the Jehovah’s Witnesses say they can currently meet for worship without
obstruction. “The authorities keep a watch on our activity, but that’s
OK – let them know what we’re up to,” Khachatryan told Forum
18.

A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
;Rootmap=azerba
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at