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
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Friday 15 April 2005
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: BEATING AND 12 DAY IMPRISONMENT FOR BAPTIST SOLDIER
Forum 18 News Service has been unable to reach V. Davidov, commanding
officer of the unit in Hadrut of the army of the unrecognised
Nagorno-Karabakh republic where Baptist conscript Gagik Mirzoyan was
beaten and detained for more than ten days in early April before being
transferred to an unknown location. Mirzoyan “is being persecuted for
preaching the Gospel and because they found several Christian calendars in
his possession,” his relatives and friends told Forum 18 after
meeting him at the unit just before his transfer. Mirzoyan has been
threatened with a two year prison sentence.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: BEATING AND 12 DAY IMPRISONMENT FOR BAPTIST SOLDIER
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Baptist conscript Gagik Mirzoyan – who is conducting unarmed service
in the army of the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic – has been beaten
and punished with more than ten days in detention since the beginning of
April for sharing his faith with other soldiers and possessing several
Christian calendars, his relatives and friends told Forum 18 News Service
from Nagorno-Karabakh on 14 April. Before being transferred to an unknown
location, he was threatened with a prison sentence of two years.
Forum 18 has been unable to reach V. Davidov, commanding officer of
Mirzoyan’s former unit in Nagorno-Karabakh’s south-eastern Hadrut region,
to find out why he ordered or allowed one of his troops to be beaten and
detained merely for expressing his faith and possessing religious
calendars.
Forum 18 also tried to find out from the defence ministry why Mirzoyan has
been punished, but an official at the ministry told Forum 18 from the
capital Stepanakert on 15 April that the minister, General Seyran Ohanyan,
was out of the office and that no-one else was immediately available.
Telephones also went unanswered at Nagorno-Karabakh’s foreign ministry.
On 11 April relatives and friends went to military unit 42009 in Hadrut to
see Mirzoyan after hearing that he had been beaten and given ten days’
detention at the guardhouse. “When we got there he had already been
held under arrest for twelve days but still had not been freed,” they
told Forum 18. They reported that when they were able to see Mirzoyan the
“results of beatings” were visible on his face. Military
personnel at the base told the visitors that Mirzoyan would be freed the
following day, 12 April, and they would then be able to talk to him.
Despite these promises, Mirzoyan continued to be detained and during the
day was threatened by the head of the unit’s political department and by
an official of the prosecutor’s office that a case against him would be
drawn up, handed to the prosecutor’s office and he would be sentenced to
two years’ imprisonment. Forum 18 has been unable to discover what charges
are being or might be levelled against Mirzoyan.
“Through the grace of God we were later able to have a ten-minute
meeting with brother Gagik and discovered that he is being persecuted for
preaching the Gospel and because they found several Christian calendars in
his possession,” his relatives and friends told Forum 18. “Now he
has been taken away to an unknown destination and they are not saying where
he is and what has happened to him.”
Mirzoyan was called up in December 2004. After refusing to serve with
weapons and swear the military oath because of his faith he was beaten and
pressured by the commander of the unit to which he was transferred and Fr
Petros Yezegyan, the unit’s Armenian Apostolic military chaplain. Both the
defence minister, General Ohanyan, and Fr Yezegyan emphatically denied to
Forum 18 that Mirzoyan had been beaten.
The army later agreed that Mirzoyan could serve in a non-combat role and
he was transferred to the unit in Hadrut region.
Nagorno-Karabakh has no provision for alternative service for those who
have religious or other conscientious objections to participating in the
armed forces. On 16 February a court in Stepanakert handed down a
four-year prison term to Areg Hovhanesyan, a Jehovah’s Witness who had
refused to serve because of his faith but had expressed a willingness to
perform an alternative civilian service (see F18News 22 February 2005
).
A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
;Rootmap=azerba
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.
(END)
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