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 January 2009
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: REPRESSIVE NEW RELIGION LAW SIGNED

The President of the internationally unrecognised entity of
Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, has signed a repressive new Religion Law,
Forum 18 News Service has learnt. It comes into force ten days after its
official publication, which is expected to be after the current Christmas
holidays. No officials were available to discuss the new Law, because of
public holidays for Christmas which the Armenian Apostolic Church
celebrates on 6 January 2009. The main restrictions in the new Law are: an
apparent ban on unregistered religious activity; highly restrictive
requirements to gain legal recognition; state censorship of religious
literature; an undefined "monopoly" given to the Armenian Apostolic Church
over preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to
similarly undefined "rallying their own faithful". Many articles of the Law
are formulated in a way that lacks clarity, making the intended
implementation of the Law uncertain. The Law also does not resolve the
issue of conscientious objection to military service.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: REPRESSIVE NEW RELIGION LAW SIGNED

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;

The repressive new Religion Law in the internationally unrecognised
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh was signed by the entity’s President Bako
Sahakyan, on 24 December 2008, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The new
Law – which will shortly come into force – imposes a range of restrictions
on freedom of thought, conscience and belief. "All this reflects the
intention of the authorities to introduce harsh control on the activities
of religious minorities," civil society activist Albert Voskanyan told
Forum 18 from the South Caucasus entity’s capital Stepanakert on 3 January
2009, "and to strengthen the exclusive role of the Armenian Apostolic
Church already proclaimed in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Constitution."

The main restrictions in Karabakh’s new Law are: an apparent ban on
unregistered religious activity; state censorship of religious literature;
the requirement for 100 adult citizens to register a religious community;
an undefined "monopoly" given to the Armenian Apostolic Church over
preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to
similarly undefined "rallying their own faithful"; and the vague
formulation of restrictions, making the intended implementation of many
articles uncertain (see F18News 4 December 2008
< e_id=1225>).

The new Law – which replaces Karabakh’s 1996 Religion Law – was approved
by Parliament on 26 November and was then sent to President Sahakyan for
signature. It comes into force ten days after its official publication,
which is expected after the 2008/9 Christmas holidays. Much, but not all,
of the new Law is copied word-for-word from Armenia’s Religion Law as
adopted in 1991 and amended in 1997 and 2001 (see F18News 4 December 2008
< e_id=1225>).

No officials were available to discuss the new Religion Law with Forum 18
because of public holidays for Christmas (which the Armenian Apostolic
Church celebrates on 6 January 2009).

Voskanyan, who heads the Stepanakert-based Centre for Civilian
Initiatives, welcomes the fact that "after many years" the new Law allows
religious communities to gain legal status for the first time. "This in
effect gives them the right to life," he told Forum 18 from the capital
Stepanakert on 3 January 2009.

However, Voskanyan believes provisions of the Law create artificial
difficulties to the registration of many religious communities,
particularly Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses. "Some won’t be able to
get registration at all because their documents won’t be in line with the
Law," he maintained. He pointed out that many will not be able to find the
necessary 100 adult citizen members required to seek legal status.

"Those without registration will then be told they are functioning
illegally." Voskanyan told Forum 18 he believes the police and secret
police will start to punish those who conduct unregistered religious
activity.

"It is my view that some Protestant organisations won’t want to present
full lists of their believers (first names, surnames, home address and
other information), fearing persecution of their flocks from the state
authorities," Voskanyan added. "People would have a real fear for their
jobs." He said officials are likely to check through the lists of names on
applications, approaching individuals in a way they might find
intimidating.

Voskanyan pointed out that one religious community, the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, has been unable to find anywhere to meet for religious worship.
"Wherever they turn, once the owners find out about their religious
affiliation they become afraid and refuse," he explained. "And the
authorities won’t provide them with a plot to build a prayer house. This
too could prevent them gaining registration as they won’t have an address
to use."

The Jehovah’s Witnesses report that when they met Ashot Sargsyan, the head
of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs,
in November 2008, he told them that as long as he is working for the
government they will not get registration. "He said openly he’s a member of
the Armenian Church," they told Forum 18 (see F18News 4 December 2008
< e_id=1225>).

Asatur Nahapetyan, head of Armenia’s Baptist Union, which includes six
member congregations in Karabakh, is more optimistic. "We need to wait and
see how the Law will be implemented, but we see no reason why these
congregations won’t get registration," he told Forum 18 from the Armenian
capital Yerevan on 5 January.

Article 5 of the new Law requires 100 adult citizens for a community to
apply for legal status. As in Armenia, religions must be based on "a
historic holy book", must be "part of the worldwide system of the
contemporary religious community" and "directed to spiritual values". The
government’s Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs has to
give its expert conclusion on a community before registration can be
approved. The Department can also go to court to have an organisation
liquidated, if it violates the Law.

Although the Law does not specifically ban unregistered religious
activity, Article 25 requires all religious organisations to register or
re-register within six months of the new Law coming into force.

In a potentially significant change from the parallel article in Armenia’s
Law, the Karabakh Law removes the specific recognition that registered
religious organisations can hold services "in homes and residences of
citizens" from the list of suitable places as given in Armenia’s Law.

Article 17 – like the corresponding article in the Armenian Law –
specifically gives the Armenian Apostolic Church a "monopoly" of preaching
its faith, building new churches, contributing to the "spiritual
edification of the people" including by teaching in state-run educational
institutions, conducting charitable activity and maintaining permanent
religious representatives in institutions such as hospitals, old people’s
homes, military units and prisons.

One controversial provision in Article 8 – copied from Armenia’s Law –
bans "soul-hunting", a derogatory term in Armenian for seeking converts.

While the extensive rights of the Armenian Church are set out in Article
17, the rights of religious organisations set out in Article 7 are all
inward-looking, with the first right specified as "rallying their own
faithful around them". The article also allows them to train their leaders,
conduct services in their own premises and in state institutions at the
request of residents who belong to the religious community.

In clear contradiction to Article 17’s granting of a "monopoly" to the
Armenian Church, Article 7 allows all of them to conduct charitable
activity.

Karabakh’s new Law gives a place of primacy to the Armenian Church in
Article 6, and only this Church is mentioned in relation to the restitution
of religious property. This is despite the fact that several mosques still
stand – even if badly damaged during fighting in the early 1990s over
Karabakh and in subsequent reprisal attacks – in areas controlled by the
Karabakh authorities. The mosques have been abandoned since the Azeri and
Kurdish populations were driven out during the war.

Another controversial provision comes in Article 22, which is not present
in Armenia’s Religion Law. This Article hands the state "control" over the
production, distribution and import of religious literature and objects.
The Article does not clarify the exact nature of such "control".

A member of the Brotherhood, an evangelical grouping within the Armenian
Apostolic Church which has about a dozen groups in Karabakh, told Forum 18
in December that he expects the government to try to ban any Jehovah’s
Witness, Baha’i, Hare Krishna or Muslim literature. Jehovah’s Witnesses
pointed out to Forum 18 that they have already had problems over religious
literature controls, with literature confiscated from their members in July
2008 as they returned from Armenia (see F18News 4 December 2008
< e_id=1225>).

The new Religion Law does not resolve the issue of an alternative to
Karabakh’s compulsory military service for all young men. One Jehovah’s
Witness, Areg Hovhanesyan, is nearing the end of a four-year sentence
imposed by a court in Stepanakert in February 2005 for refusing military
service on grounds of religious conscience (see F18News 27 March 2008
< e_id=1105>).

Members of religious communities have expressed strong concerns to Forum
18 about the Law. One member of the Armenian Apostolic Church rhetorically
asked Forum 18: "Where’s the freedom?" Another described the Law as "like
rubber," noting that "you can’t see exactly how it’s going to be put into
practice" (see F18News 4 December 2008
< e_id=1225>). (END)

Further coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in
Nagorno-Karabakh is at
< mp;religion=all&country=22>.

A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.
(END)

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