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
========================================== =====
Tuesday 27 April 2010
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: "WE ARE GETTING READY FOR WAR AND WE NEED OUR NATION TO
BE UNITED"
Fines today (27 April) on four Protestants bring to nine the number of
religious believers punished so far for unregistered religious worship in
Nagorno-Karabakh, the internationally unrecognised entity in the south
Caucasus, religious communities have told Forum 18 News Service. More fines
are likely. The fines follow eight police raids on worship services of
Adventists, Evangelical Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses since February.
"All religious organisations must have registration before they start to
meet – it’s the law," Deputy Police Chief Mkhitar Grigoryan told Forum 18,
without admitting that two of these communities were denied registration.
Karabakh’s religious affairs official Ashot Sargsyan explained to the
Adventists the government’s attitude to smaller religious communities: "We
are getting ready for war and we need our nation to be united".
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: "WE ARE GETTING READY FOR WAR AND WE NEED OUR NATION TO
BE UNITED"
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;
"They were raided because they were meeting without registration," a
Nagorno-Karabakh Deputy Police Chief has insisted to Forum 18 News Service.
Mkhitar Grigoryan defended eight police raids on worship services of three
separate religious communities in the internationally unrecognised entity
in the south Caucasus, speaking from the capital Stepanakert on 27 April.
"All religious organisations must have registration before they start to
meet – it’s the law," he asserted. Asked whether the raids were a return to
Soviet-era human rights violations, he laughed and put the phone down.
The chief and deputy chiefs of Stepanakert city police – which conducted
the raids on the Seventh-day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the
Revival Fire Protestant Church in the capital – were not available when
Forum 18 called on 27 April. The duty officer rejected suggestions that the
police had done anything wrong in raiding the communities, but declined to
discuss why the raids had been launched.
Forum 18 reached Ashot Sargsyan, head of the government’s Department for
Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs, by phone on 27 April, but he said he
could hear nothing as the line was not good and put the phone down.
Karabakh’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vasili Atajanyan told Forum 18 on 27
April that he had heard nothing of any raids and fines on religious
communities. But he insisted that "Nagorno-Karabakh is a democratic state
that respects human rights". "No-one is undergoing persecution," he
claimed. However, he insisted that the authorities have to be wary because
of the threat of renewed war with the Azerbaijani government.
Raids follow restrictive Religion Law
The raids, followed by fines on Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses come
just over a year after the entry into force in January 2009 of the entity’s
Religion Law. The Law – heavily based on the Religion Law of neighbouring
Armenia – appears to require registration of religious communities and ban
unregistered religious activity.
Other restrictions include: 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 3 November 2009
< e_id=1371>).
Albert Voskanyan of the Stepanakert-based Centre for Civilian Initiatives,
who has long worked for religious freedom, reminded Forum 18 on 27 April
that he had warned of the resumption of penalties for religious activity
when the new Religion Law was adopted. "The next step will indeed be
criminal prosecution," he added.
February raid
The first community to be raided was Stepanakert’s Adventist congregation.
About a dozen police officers arrived on 27 February as the congregation of
some 15 people was nearing the end of its Saturday worship service, Douglas
Hardt, the head of the Adventist Church in Armenia, told Forum 18 from the
Armenian capital Yerevan on 27 April. Police confiscated all the
literature, including about 15 identical copies of the Bible, as well as
CDs and DVDs, saying they needed to check it up. Also taken was all the
offertory money.
Police officers told those present that they should not meet for worship
without state registration and if they did so they would be fined the first
time, then imprisoned. The men present were taken to the police station,
where they were threatened, Hardt added. However, he said no cases against
them under the Code of Administrative Offences were launched.
Hardt said the following few Saturdays (which Adventists mark as their
Sabbath), the community did not meet together for worship. However, he said
that police later returned the literature and the offertory money.
"We need our nation to be united"
Hardt and a colleague from the Adventist Church in Armenia travelled to
Nagorno-Karabakh a month after the raid, and met several officials. On 26
March they met Sargsyan of the Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious
Affairs, who claimed to them that the Religion Law was a "good law". "We
are getting ready for war and we need our nation to be united," Hardt
quoted Sargsyan as telling them. Sargsyan questioned what Hardt – an
American – and his colleague – an Armenian citizen – were doing in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hardt said they had also met an official in the government, who had told
them: "We’re all Orthodox [i.e. of the Armenian Apostolic Church], why are
you different?"
However, Hardt added that he was encouraged when they received a telephone
call from the office of Yuri Hairapetyan, the Human Rights Ombudsperson,
who told them that although the Adventists do not have registration, the
law does not provide for religious communities to be punished for meeting
together.
The Adventist congregation has resumed worship services and has not faced
further problems.
Hardt complains that the requirement for 100 adult members makes
registration for their community impossible, as they do not have enough
members.
March raids
Police raided simultaneously six separate Jehovah’s Witness meetings in
Stepanakert on the evening of 30 March, the day worldwide when Jehovah’s
Witnesses marked the Memorial of Christ’s death. Also raided that evening
were meetings in the towns of Shushi near Stepanakert and Askeran north of
Stepanakert.
Local Jehovah’s Witnesses had rented a venue in Stepanakert to hold the
Memorial meeting, Lyova Markaryan, an Armenian Jehovah’s Witness, told
Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 27 April. However, several hours beforehand
the police had banned them from using the venue and they had to meet in
smaller groups in private homes.
Up to 30 police officers took part in the raids in Stepanakert. Markaryan
said two or three Bibles were confiscated with no reasons given. Two men
were taken to the police station where they were photographed and
fingerprinted and not freed until nearly midnight. Officers told them the
meetings were illegal as Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have registration.
Subsequent fines and further cases
Police drew up records of offences under Article 206 of Karabakh’s Code of
Administrative Offences against 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses present at the
commemorations, Markaryan told Forum 18. Article 206 punishes "holding mass
meetings without state permission" with a fine of between 30 and 100
percent of the official monthly minimum wage.
The first to be fined were five Jehovah’s Witnesses in Askeran, who faced
an administrative commission on 19 April. Found guilty of violating Article
206, they were each fined 300 Armenian Drams, the currency in use in
Karabakh (4.5 Norwegian Kroner, 0.58 Euros or 0.77 US Dollars). The five
paid the fines, but are appealing to the Administrative Court.
"It’s not a question of the fines in themselves," Markaryan explained to
Forum 18. "It’s that next time they will face prosecution under the
Criminal Code." He said Sargsyan of the Department for Ethnic Minority and
Religious Affairs has repeatedly told them that for any second "offence"
the Criminal Code will be used. (Although no articles of the Criminal Code
have been specified, Criminal Code penalties are far higher.)
Although 13 people in Stepanakert were due to be punished administratively
under Article 206, two of them – both Russian citizens – have already
returned to Russia. The remaining 11 – ten of whom are being punished for
their presence at the Memorial meeting in Stepanakert, the other in Shushi
– were due to have their cases heard on 27 April. However, Markaryan – who
had been present at the commission that day – told Forum 18 that it had
readily agreed to postpone the hearings until the following week to allow
the Jehovah’s Witnesses to prepare their case.
Markaryan told Forum 18 that the police records of the "offences" against
each of the 11 have not yet been handed over.
On 27 April, one of the 11 awaiting an administrative case in Stepanakert
was detained by police in Shushi for leading a Bible study, Markaryan
added. Police demanded that he write a statement. They drew up a record for
him to face a further administrative hearing under Article 206.
Jehovah’s Witness registration rejected
Markaryan pointed out to Forum 18 that Karabakh’s Jehovah’s Witness
community tried to get registration. It lodged its application in June
2009, but this was rejected by the State Registry in August 2009 after a
negative assessment by Sargsyan of the Department for Ethnic Minority and
Religious Affairs. A Jehovah’s Witness challenge to the denial was rejected
by the General Court of First Instance in Stepanakert in October 2009 (see
F18News 3 November 2009
< e_id=1371>).
The community lodged an appeal to Karabakh’s Supreme Court calling for the
October 2009 judgment to be annulled and obliging the State Registry to
register the community. They argued that the denial of registration
violated their rights under the Karabakh Constitution and international
human rights conventions that Karabakh has unilaterally said it would abide
by. But after a hearing, the three judges headed by Gayane Grigoryan
rejected their suit against the State Registry in a judgment of 28 January,
of which Forum 18 has seen the text.
Appearing in court, State Registry head Sevak Mikaelyan insisted the State
Registry could not be sued in court as it is only a sub-department of the
Justice Ministry which was merely following the expert analysis of the
Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs. He also argued that
the Jehovah’s Witnesses could not authorise their member Sarkis Avanesyan
to bring the suit as – given that no registered community exists – it could
not therefore authorise anyone to act on its behalf.
The court accepted his arguments, although it did annul the October 2009
court decision.
Markaryan of the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 of the community’s
dissatisfaction with the decision.
April raid and fines
On 10 April, the criminal investigation chief of Stepanakert city police
invited Pastor Levon Sardaryan of Revival Fire Evangelical Church to his
office to warn him that it had no right to meet as it does not have
registration, Sardaryan told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 27 April. The
officer threatened to send police to raid the church if it continued to
meet.
On the morning of 11 April, as the church was meeting for Sunday worship at
Sardaryan’s home, about seven police officers arrived and ordered the
service to stop. Church members refused, pointing out their rights under
the Constitution. Sardaryan, and three other church members soon after,
were taken to the police station, where they were pressured to sign
statements prepared in their names. However, they refused to sign the
prepared statements and wrote their own. They were then freed, but
threatened that if they continued to gather for Sunday worship they "would
not be treated so mildly".
Sardaryan wrote letters of complaint to Sargsyan, who responded to him that
as the church failed to get registration the church has no right to meet
and the police were right. Sardaryan also wrote to Ombudsperson
Hairapetyan.
Sardaryan and three other church members were summoned to an administrative
hearing on 27 April, which took place just before the Jehovah’s Witness
cases were due to be heard. The four were found guilty under Article 206
and each fined 1,000 Armenian Drams (15 Norwegian Kroner, 2 Euros or 3 US
Dollars). He said that despite the low level of the fines, they refused to
pay as they do not consider themselves guilty of any offence.
Sardaryan said that Sunday worship services were not raided on 18 and 25
April.
Revival Fire’s registration application was rejected in March 2009 after a
negative assessment by Sargsyan (see F18News 4 May 2009
< e_id=1290>).
Sardaryan insists his church has the right to meet under Constitutional
guarantees of freedom of conscience, religion, assembly and expression,
even if registration was denied and pledged to continue to hold services.
Prosecution for rejecting military oath?
Meanwhile, local Council of Churches Baptist and military conscript Armen
Mirzoyan, who is from Mardakert, is facing possible prosecution for
refusing to swear the military oath, Council of Churches Baptists told
Forum 18 from Karabakh. They say he was threatened by commanders of his
military unit in Hadrut after he refused their pressure to swear the oath
in the wake of his call-up in January. The investigator told his mother and
brother that the case had been handed over to the court.
However, one Baptist who knows Mirzoyan told Forum 18 on 27 April that no
date has been set for any hearing. However, the Baptist expressed concern
that, while Mirzoyan is refusing to swear the oath based on his reading of
the Bible, prosecutors are seeking to prosecute him for evading military
service. "But he’s already serving in his unit," the Baptist insisted.
Mirzoyan’s older brother Gagik was forcibly taken to a military unit in
December 2004 and beaten, and then imprisoned for refusing military
service. He was freed in September 2006 and transferred to a military unit,
where he was able to serve without swearing the oath and without bearing
arms. He was released from service in January 2008 (see F18News 27 March
2008 < 1105>).
Nagorno-Karabakh allows young men no alternative to compulsory military
service and has earlier imprisoned conscientious objectors. (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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