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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Monday 5 September 2005
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: BAPTIST CONSCRIPT NOW IMPRISONED
Military leaders in the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the
South Caucasus have successfully appealed to the courts for Gagik Mirzoyan
– handed a suspended sentence in July for refusing to handle weapons or
swear the military oath on grounds of religious faith – to be sent to
prison. On 5 September Hadrut district court imprisoned the embattled
Baptist conscript for one year. The court told Mirzoyan that if he
declared then and there he would swear the oath it would free him and send
him back to his unit. “Gagik responded that he couldn’t do so as the Bible
doesn’t allow it,” a fellow Baptist told Forum 18. “He was sentenced and
police took him away immediately.” Two Jehovah’s Witnesses have also been
sentenced to prison in Nagorno-Karabakh this year for refusing compulsory
military service because of their religious convictions.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: BAPTIST CONSCRIPT NOW IMPRISONED
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Two months after a court in the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
in the South Caucasus gave Baptist conscript Gagik Mirzoyan a suspended
sentence for refusing to swear the military oath or bear arms because of
his religious convictions, a court has increased the penalty at the urging
of military leaders. The district court of Hadrut in south-eastern Karabakh
sentenced Mirzoyan today (5 September) to one year’s imprisonment. “This is
bad news,” Albert Voskanyan, director of the Centre for Civilian
Initiatives, told Forum 18 News Service from Karabakh’s capital
Stepanakert. “Mirzoyan is likely to be brought here to Stepanakert in the
next few days and then, it seems, to the prison in Shushi.”
Already held in Shushi prison for refusing military service on grounds of
religious conscience is Jehovah’s Witness Areg Hovhanesyan, sentenced on
16 February to four years’ imprisonment (see F18News 22 February 2005
<;).
“We were there in court with Gagik’s family today,” a fellow-Baptist told
Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 5 September. “Gagik looked well, but he was
much thinner, perhaps because of all the worry over the past few months.”
The Baptist reported that the court told Mirzoyan that if he declared then
and there he would swear the oath it would free him and send him back to
his unit. “Gagik responded that he couldn’t do so as the Bible doesn’t
allow it. He was sentenced and police took him away immediately.”
The Baptist, who preferred not to be named, insisted that Mirzoyan is
prepared to conduct an alternative service. “He’s ready to serve even in a
dangerous position, such as in a frontline medical unit, as long as it is
without weapons and without swearing the oath,” the Baptist told Forum 18.
“He believes this would be a witness for others to his faith.”
Mirzoyan, a Karabakh native and a member of a local congregation of the
Council of Churches Baptists, was called up last December. He announced
immediately that he was not able to serve with weapons or swear the
military oath on grounds of religious conscience. In the wake of his
conscription he was beaten up in two different military units and served
10 days in military prison (see F18News 6 January 2005
<; and 15 April 2005
< le_id=544>).
Nagorno-Karabakh has compulsory military service for all young men, with
no alternative service provision. At a trial at Hadrut district court on 7
July, Mirzoyan was found guilty under Article 364 part 1 of the criminal
code (Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted Armenia’s criminal code), which
punishes “refusal to perform one’s military duties” with detention of up
to 3 months, disciplinary battalion of up to 2 years or imprisonment of up
to 2 years. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. However, the court
ruled that the sentence should be suspended under Article 70 of the
criminal code, which covers conditional punishments. Mirzoyan was then
sent back to his military unit in Hadrut district (see F18News 13 July
2005 <;).
The Baptist said that conditional sentences are given so that those
sentenced “think over” what they have done. “But as they saw no progress
in persuading Gagik to take the oath, the military leadership appealed
against his suspended sentence and the case was brought to court again.”
Karabakh officials have revealed to Forum 18 in recent months that letters
about Mirzoyan’s case had arrived in Stepanakert from around the world.
Local Baptists say some 500 letters alone reached the court ahead of the 7
July trial.
The Stepanakert Baptist told Forum 18 he understands that “the young
state” of Nagorno-Karabakh is wary over allowing an alternative to
compulsory military service as long as hostilities with the Azerbaijani
government are unresolved. “There is still a state of war, and the
authorities fear other people will try to follow the example of anyone
allowed to do alternative service. But if such alternative service is hard
and even dangerous, it will separate out those who want to do it because of
their love of the Lord.”
Also sentenced in Karabakh this year for refusing military service on
religious grounds was another Jehovah’s Witness Armen Grigoryan, an
Armenian citizen who had been illegally deported from Armenia to serve in
Karabakh against his will. Grigoryan was returned to Armenia to serve his
two year sentence (see F18News 7 July 2005
<;). Jehovah’s Witness
sources told Forum 18 on 26 July that Grigoryan is now being held in the
prison in the town of Nubarashen close to the Armenian capital Yerevan.
A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
<;Rootmap=azerba>
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.
A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
< a&Rootmap=armeni>
(END)
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