BosNewsLife, Hungary
July 22 2005
Azerbaijan Releases “Beaten” Baptist Conscript
Friday, 22 July 2005 (4 hours ago)
By BosNewsLife News Center
Amid reported persecution the people of Azerbaijan try to make
a living. BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (BosNewsLife)– A Baptist young man who
received a two year suspended prison sentence and was allegedly beaten
for refusing to swear the military oath or wearing arms, has returned
to his unit to serve the remaining time of his obligatory military
service, Christian investigators said.
In a statement monitored Friday, July 22, the Voice Of the Martyrs
Canada (VOMC) said Gagik Mirzoyan had been called to serve in the
unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally considered
part of Azerbaijan.
In April, VOMC and other human rights activists reported that Mirzoyan
had been beaten and given ten days detention for sharing his He “was
beaten and detained for more than ten days in early April” before
being transferred to another location, said Forum 18, another human
rights group earlier.
“RESULTS OF BEATINGS”
Relatives reportedly saw the “results of beatings” on his face.
Military personnel allegedly promised them Mirzoyan would be freed the
next day but apparently changed their mind and deported him from army
barracks in Hadrut. “Mirzoyan is now back with his military unit in
the Hadrut district where he is under “special supervision,” VOMC said.
“He is not under any particular pressure at this point. Historically,
Baptists in much of the former Soviet Union are pacifists in doctrine,
but this has not prevented believers such as Mirzoyan from being
conscripted into military service,” the group added.
It urged supporters to “pray that Mirzoyan will be free to practice
his faith without further harassment” or punishment. Baptists have
attributed his release from prison to international pressure.
MORE IN JAIL
However Forum 18 cautioned that two Jehovah’s Witnesses – Karabakh
native Areg Hovhanesyan and Armenian citizen Armen Grigoryan, were
sentenced in Nagorno-Karabakh this year for refusing military service
on grounds of religious conscience and are still in jail.
Hovhanesyan is serving his four-year sentence in prison in the Karabakh
town of Shushi, while Grigoryan has been returned to Armenia to serve
his two year sentence, Forum 18 News Service reported. The US and
other countries have in the past expressed concern about religious and
political persecution in the country where Christians are estimated
to comprise less than seven percent of the country’s nearly eight
million population.
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic with a Turkic and majority-Muslim
population, regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve
its conflict with Armenia over the Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said.
(With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Azerbaijan).
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