Institute for War and Peace Reporting
July 28 2005
KARABAKH: RELIGION AND THE ARMY
Nagorny Karabakh debates what freedoms to allow its new religious
minorities.
By Ashot Beglarian in Stepanakert
Nagorny Karabakh is getting used to religious minorities, but the
relationship is a difficult one and three men belonging to foreign
Christian churches have ended up in jail for refusing to do military
service.
This has raised the issue of whether alternative military service on
grounds of conscience should be made legal in the unrecognised
republic.
A recent round table in Stepanakert succeeded in getting people of
different views on these issues to discuss them, although two
minority faiths, Pentecostalists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, did not
attend.
The representatives of the religious minorities complained about the
use of the word `organisation’ or `sect’ to describe them and said
that they were unhappy that they were not allowed to register as
churches.
`We are God’s church and when we meet we only want to feed ourselves
and others with God’s Word,’ said Garnik Abreyan, who represents the
International Union of Evangelical Churches and recently settled in
Karabakh.
There are estimated to be more than 1200 members of the new churches
in Karabakh, which has an official population of around 100,000.
Albert Voskanian, a Karabakh human rights activist who convened the
meeting, said that despite the adoption of a law on religious freedom
in March 1997, religious minorities met with intolerance in Karabakh.
In particular, two Jehovah’s Witnesses and one Baptist have been sent
to jail for refusing to serve in the army.
There was much discussion about how the new churches had arrived in
Karabakh when fighting was still going on and had been regarded with
suspicion by locals, who thought they were threatening social
stability by the refusal of many of their adherents to take an oath,
take up arms and serve in the army.
`We can define attitudes to alternative service by judging whether a
person is a real believer, whether he is ready to go through more
serious trials than those of the army because of his belief or
whether he is simply shirking service and its difficulties,’ said
Abreyan.
Aveg Avanesian, who is now 19, was sentenced to four years’
imprisonment for refusing to do his military service. Armen
Grigorian, also 19, was given a two-year sentence in June for
desertion. He is now serving the remainder of his sentence in his
native Armenia. This month, Gagik Mirzoyan was given a two-year
sentence for the same offence.
Sociologist David Karabekian said that the religious minorities were
not being persecuted or actively obstructed by the Karabakh
authorities.
`It is more a question of the legal aspect of the activity of
non-traditional confessions and how religious organisations should
behave,’ said Karabekian. `The issue is that there is no law in the
Nagorny Karabakh republic which regulates the activity of religious
organisations.’
Karabekian said some are worried that if a law is passed which
defines these groups as religious rather than social organisations,
there will be a massive influx of foreign evangelists into Nagorny
Karabakh.
Karabekian suggested that Karabakh should follow the example of Great
Britain and Greece, where religious freedom is enshrined in law but
there is an established church with deep historic roots, `For
Armenians the church is something more than a spiritual institution
and so the Armenian Apostolic Church ought to have a special status
and not be put on the same level as other religions.’
The Armenian church has chaplains in almost all units of the Karabakh
army.
Voskanian is proposing the introduction of a law on alternative
service, analogous to the one in Armenia – adopted after Armenia
joined the Council of Europe.
`Experience shows that repression of religious minorities not only
fails to `uproot’ them, but actually strengthens them by creating an
image for them of `martyrs for the faith’,’ said Voskanian.
Supporters of alternative service say it would bring the unrecognised
republic into line with other countries of the region. Voskanian
cited the example of the abolition of the death penalty in Karabakh
in 2003. Opponents say it would set a dangerous precedent to
introduce it when the conflict with Azerbaijan remains unsettled.
Sergei Avanesian, a local resident, spoke for many when he said, `I
think it is too early for us to bring in alternative service.
Ill-intentioned people can abuse it. We have very modest human
resources and a constant threat of war and we cannot allow ourselves
this.’
IWPR was present at the trial of Armen Grigorian. He told the court
that his religion did not permit him to `fight physically’ which is
why he had refused to obey his commanders’ orders. That is why he had
fled military service and even fled the military hospital where he
was kept. He had even not been prepared to look after soldiers in
hospital since this was an indirect way of serving the armed forces.
Areg Avanesian, visited by IWPR in jail, said he was `ready to sit
out a jail sentence as long as I have to, but I will not go into the
army’.
The intransigence of both men made it clear that this is a problem
which will not go away.
Ashot Beglarian is a freelance journalist in Nagorny Karabakh and an
IWPR contributor.