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 21 December 2009
AZERBAIJAN: RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED AS REGISTRATION DEADLINE APPROACHES
Less than two weeks before Azerbaijan’s 1 January 2010 deadline for
religious communities to re-register to continue to legally exist, Forum 18
News Service has found that more than four fifths of religious communities
have apparently been able to get re-registration. They are liable to
liquidation through the courts, unless they are able to re-register before
2010. Muslims have complained to Forum 18 News Service that only
communities affiliated with the Caucasian Muslim Board are now eligible to
apply for registration, while non-Muslim communities complain that
officials of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations –
which conducts the registration – is forcing communities to include
restrictions in their statutes. The so-called "model statute" reinforces
restrictions included in the 2009 Religion Law, and also imposes unclear
wording that may be used against peaceful religious activity. One
reinforcement of restrictions is a requirement that the State Committee
will be informed when religious education is given to a community’s young
people and adults. It appear that in the Nakhichevan exclave no
re-registration is taking place.
AZERBAIJAN: RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED AS REGISTRATION DEADLINE APPROACHES
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;
With less than two weeks to go before the 1 January 2010 deadline for
religious communities to re-register if they wish to continue to legally
exist, more than four fifths of Azerbaijan’s religious communities will
become liable to liquidation through the courts unless they are able to get
registration before 2010. Muslims have complained to Forum 18 News Service
that only communities affiliated with the Caucasian Muslim Board are now
eligible to apply for registration, while non-Muslim communities complain
that officials of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations
– which conducts the registration – are forcing communities to include
restrictions on religious activity in their statutes.
Officials of the State Committee admitted to the local Azeri Press Agency
on 16 December that only some 100 of the 534 religious communities that had
registration under the old Religion Law have been re-registered. Officials
have insisted through the local media that in accordance with the harsh new
Religion Law, all unregistered religious activity will be illegal.
Without state registration, religious communities remain vulnerable to
police raids and harassment (see most recently F18News 15 December 2009
< e_id=1387>).
Many have condemned the renewed demand for re-registration, such as Ilgar
Ibrahimoglu Allahverdiev, head of the Devamm Muslim rights organisation and
former imam of the Juma mosque community in Baku’s Old City which was
forcibly ousted by the state in 2004 (see F18News 7 July 2004
< e_id=357>). "Registration has
always been difficult but this time the bureaucracy has been worse than
ever," Ibrahimoglu told Forum 18 from Baku on 21 December. "I don’t
understand why re-registration is needed every few years – each time
communities suffer."
The requirement that mosques have to submit to the Muslim Board before
applying for state registration or re-registration is not new. But
Ibrahimoglu says he knows of several mosques in Baku and elsewhere that
have difficulties applying for registration because of this requirement. He
said he did not wish to identify them for fear of making their situation
worse.
Ibrahimoglu claimed that in Shamkir District of north-western Azerbaijan
the authorities have bypassed the local Muslim communities and formed their
own communities that they can control and promoted their re-registration
applications.
Muslim Board and Orthodox first to be re-registered
The first organisation to be re-registered was the Caucasian Muslim Board
in September, followed in November by the Baku and Caspian Russian Orthodox
Diocese and then the Mountain Jewish community in Baku. Mosques, mostly in
and around Baku, as well as the Hare Krishna community in Baku and New Life
Protestant church were among others to receive re-registration.
Rahima Rahimova, press spokesperson for the Caucasian Muslim Board, told
Forum 18 from Baku on 21 December that the Board’s Organisational
Department has asked the State Committee to re-register 419 individual
mosques around Azerbaijan. She said she did not know how many of those have
already been re-registered, but agreed that it seems unlikely that all will
be re-registered by the deadline. "State Committee officials told us that
communities that apply before the deadline, even if they are not
re-registered by then, will be fine."
Just over 500 mosques had registration under the old Religion Law, but
Rahimova said she did not know what had happened to any applications from
the more than 80 others. She was unsure whether any communities whose
mosques have been demolished or closed down by officials were included in
the communities recommended for re-registration (see F18News 18 September
2009 < 1350>).
Fr Konstantin of the Russian Orthodox Diocese told Forum 18 proudly on 16
December that it had been the second community to be re-registered after
the Muslim Board. He said the Diocese’s statute allows it to function
across the whole of Azerbaijan, adding that State Committee officials had
not instructed it what to include in or exclude from its statute. "They
accepted the statute we had before," he told Forum 18.
Arbitrary statute restrictions
A variety of religious communities have complained to Forum 18 that the
State Committee has imposed on them a model statute – the text of which has
been seen by Forum 18 – which reinforces restrictions included in the new
2009 Religion Law, as well as unclear formulations which may be used
against peaceful religious activity. The "model statute for non-Muslim
religious communities (organisations)" appears to have been imposed on a
number of non-Muslim, non-Russian Orthodox and non-Jewish organisations.
Most controversial are the territorial restrictions imposed via the model
statute, which reinforce provisions in the Religion Law(see F18News 3 June
2009 < 1305>). Article 1.1 of
the "model statute" states that the community is founded for religious
activity "on its own property", while Article 1.11 includes the bald
statement: "The territory of activity: The community can only function on
the territory of its own legal address."
One religious minority representative told Forum 18 that when they asked
why such territorial restrictions are being imposed, State Committee
officials refused to say. "They told us they are not here to give
explanations and that only the Constitutional Court has the right to
interpret laws."
Although the new Religion Law requires permission from the State Committee
for religious communities to import or produce religious literature or
other religious items, religious communities question the need for the
statute to specify that they will seek such permission. Likewise, the model
statute specifies that the community will inform the State Committee when
it gives religious education to its young people and adults.
The model statute also imposes rules on how religious communities make
internal decisions, Article 3.1 specifying that the ruling body of a
community is a general meeting of the 10 founders required by the Religion
Law. This must take place at least once a month.
Undefined wording
Also imposed is an unclear formulation specifying that "the community
formulates its relations with other religious confessions on the basis of
religious toleration (tolerance), respect and the avoidance of conflict"
and that the community cannot use violence or the threat of violence in
promoting its faith.
Some are concerned by the lack of definitions of these terms, which they
fear the state will use against peaceful religious activity. State
Committee officials have justified the country’s severe censorship
regulations – which are used against a wide variety of religious believers
– on the grounds that banned literature was "propagating religious
intolerance and discrimination" (see F18News 24 February 2009
< e_id=1259>).
Article 1 of the Religion Law amended in 2009 bans the undefined "spreading
propaganda of religions with violence or by threatening violence, as well
as with the purpose of creating racial, national, religious, social
hostility and enmity. It is prohibited to spread and propagate religions
(religious movements) against the principles of humanity and human
dignity." The Law offers officials a wide range of possibilities to ban
religious groups they dislike (see F18News 3 June 2009
< e_id=1305>).
"This presumes we are guilty unless we state otherwise"
Several Protestant Churches have told Forum 18 that they object to the
model statute. "It appears we have to make clear we are not going to break
the Law," one complained. "This presumes we are guilty unless we state
otherwise."
One community which refused to accept the model statute was the Baha’i
community, which has a national centre and a community each in Baku and
Sumgait. "They told us to change our current statute to conform to the new
Law and we complied," one Baha’i told Forum 18 from Baku on 21 December.
"Whatever you write in the statute is meaningless anyway, because the
Religion Law takes precedence."
Not all non-Muslim communities were given the model statute. Fr Vladimir
Fekete, the head of the Catholic Church in Baku, said that State Committee
officials have told them that their statute "must conform to the new
Religion Law". "Our lawyer is now working on this," he told Forum 18 from
Baku on 16 December. He said the Church lodged its application in early
December, but has had to correct one document.
Jehovah’s Witnesses – who are waiting for a response to their
re-registration application for their Baku community – told Forum 18 on 21
December that State Committee officials merely gave them the amendments to
the Religion Law and told to ensure that their new statute conformed to
them. "What we put in our statute is up to us."
Several Protestant Churches complained that State Committee officials
objected to provisions in their proposed charters over inviting foreign
fellow-believers to visit communities for religious purposes and over
including children in religious activity. "Officials refused to allow us to
include these, but we are going to try to fight for them," one told Forum
18.
No response to Georgian Orthodox
Although relations between the leadership of the Georgian Orthodox Church
and Azerbaijani state leaders seem to be improving, the Church is still
waiting for an official response to a letter from Georgian Patriarch Ilya
to Hidayat Orujev, head of the State Committee, and President Aliev. Ilya
met the president on a visit to Baku in November and met Orujev the same
month when he visited the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
"Our Patriarch wrote to the President and Hidayat Orujev asking them to
register a Georgian Orthodox Diocese in Azerbaijan," a Patriarchate
representative told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 21 December. "We also asked
Sheikh-ul-Islam Pashazade of the Muslim Board to help facilitate our
registration. So far there has been no response. We hope they’ll agree to
do this. If they don’t, they’ll have to write giving their reasons why
not."
The representative told Forum 18 that the one registered Georgian Orthodox
parish in Gakh in north-western Azerbaijan, which has a sizeable ethnic
Georgian population, has not lodged re-registration documents as they are
hoping to register the diocese first. The representative admitted that
problems over access by Georgian Orthodox to other historical churches has
still not been resolved (see F18News 29 January 2009
< e_id=1246>).
Asked about reports that Orujev and the Patriarch had agreed over plans to
build a Georgian Orthodox church in Baku, the representative warned that it
was still early days. "This will have to wait until the Georgian Embassy in
Baku can acquire a plot of land." Asked why the community cannot itself
acquire its own land and apply for registration, the representative said it
is not clear if this would be possible.
Religion Law forces re-registration
The compulsory re-registration of all religious organisations – the fourth
since Azerbaijan gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991 – was mandated by the repressive amendments to the Religion Law
which came into force in May 2009.
The amendments also increased the range of information communities must
give when lodging registration applications, required State Committee
approval to build or rebuild any place of worship wherever it is located in
Azerbaijan, banned the sale of religious literature in venues that have not
been approved, banned religious activity outside registered addresses of
religious communities, and imposed new penalties in the Criminal Code and
Code of Administrative Offences for violations of these new restrictions
(see F18News 3 June 2009
< e_id=1305>).
A second set of amendments to the Religion Law – this time targeting only
Muslims – were signed by President Ilham Aliev and made public in July,
without saying when they came into force. These amendments ban non-citizens
and citizens who have gained their religious education abroad from leading
Muslim rituals (see F18News 22 July 2009
< e_id=1330>).
The Nakhichevan exception
However, an assistant in the Religious Affairs Office in Nakhichevan – an
exclave wedged between Armenia, Iran and Turkey which is an autonomous
republic of Azerbaijan – insisted that no re-registration requirement
exists there. "We’re not doing re-registration here," Faik Farajov told
Forum 18 from Nakhichevan on 21 December. "We’re subject not to the State
Committee in Baku but to the government of the Autonomous Republic."
He insisted that the ban on unregistered religious activity prescribed in
the new Religion Law will not apply in Nakhichevan. "No one here said
anything about religious activity without registration being illegal.
There’s no such ban here." He pointed out that of the 250 or so mosques,
only eight have state registration. "They registered with us here in
Nakhichevan and were re-registered in 2004 and 2005. They all had a
certificate from the Caucasian Muslim Board.
The Nakhichevan authorities have cracked down hard on small communities of
Seventh-day Adventists and Baha’is in Nakhichevan. Farajov the Religious
Affairs Office told Forum 18 that no non-Muslim communities exist. "The
Adventists and Baha’is have all left," he claimed, insisting that "of
course" they would be allowed to function (see F18News 6 February 2008
< e_id=1082>).
Ibrahimoglu of the Devamm Muslim rights group points out that control by
the authorities in Nakhichevan is even tighter than in the rest of
Azerbaijan. No independent monitoring of religious freedom or other human
rights can take place there. "It is not safe to do so," he told Forum 18.
Struggles for registration
Registration is especially tightly controlled in Azerbaijan. Each time the
Religion Law has been substantially amended in the 18 years since
independence, all religious communities have been obliged to re-register,
with time-consuming meetings, paperwork and negotiation with the State
Committee. Each time some disfavoured religious communities have found that
ever fewer have been able to do so, Forum 18 notes. The last
re-registration drive in the wake of the 2001 Religion Law amendments saw
many unable to gain registration.
Believed to hold the record for the religious community denied registration
for the longest time is the Baptist congregation in the town of Aliabad in
Zakatala District. It first applied for registration in the mid-1990s and
is still waiting (see eg. F18News 12 February 2009
< e_id=1254>).
Pastor Zaur Balaev told Forum 18 from the town on 13 December that church
members again went to Zakatala notary Najiba Mamedova on 11 December for
her to notarise the signatures of the 20 founders on the application, but
both she and her colleague refused to do so once again. "Until we get an
order from the State Committee in Baku we won’t do so," Balaev quoted them
as saying. The church has prepared a complaint to Orujev, the head of the
State Committee in Baku.
In 2008, the State Committee registered 102 communities, all but one of
them Muslim. The only non-Muslim community it registered was a Jewish
community in the city of Sumgait. In 2009 it refused to register any new
communities until the new Religion Law had come into force.
Of the 534 religious communities which managed to gain registration under
the old Religion Law, Forum 18 believes that 502 were Muslim while only 32
were of other faiths. The Russian Orthodox diocese (which has six parishes
in Azerbaijan) chose to register as one organisation. Eight of the
communities were Jewish (Ashkenazi, Mountain or Georgian Jews), three were
Molokan, three Baptist, three Bahai, two Adventist, one Hare Krishna, one
Jehovah’s Witness, one Georgian Orthodox (the parish in Gakh), one
Catholic, one Albanian Udin, and six other Protestant congregations. (END)
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
< _id=482>.
For more background information see Forum 18’s Azerbaijan religious freedom
survey at < 1192>.
More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan is
at <; religion=all&country=23>.
A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
< id=1351>.
A personal commentary on the European Court of Human Rights and
conscientious objection to military service is at
< id=1377>).
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;.
(END)
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