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
========================================== =====
Wednesday 7 April 2010
AZERBAIJAN: OFFICIAL DENIES "UNPROFESSIONAL WORK" OVER RE-REGISTRATION
DENIALS AND DELAYS
Seven months after compulsory re-registration of all Azerbaijan’s religious
communities began (except in Nakhichevan) and three months after the end of
the submission deadline, the State Committee for Work with Religious
Organisations has admitted that fewer than half the 534 registered
communities have been re-registered. Yet an official denied to Forum 18
News Service its work is "unprofessional". Mosques forcibly closed by the
state – including Fatima Zahra mosque in Baku – have been told their
applications are invalid. Baku’s Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and International Fellowship have also been denied
re-registration, Forum 18 has learnt. In the wake of its rejection, Baku’s
Baptist church was four times visited by police in March, claiming that it
was acting "illegally". The International Fellowship – an English-language
Protestant church – is now having visas for foreign personnel denied and
one has already had to leave.
AZERBAIJAN: OFFICIAL DENIES "UNPROFESSIONAL WORK" OVER RE-REGISTRATION
DENIALS AND DELAYS
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;
Religious communities of a wide variety of faiths in Azerbaijan have
expressed to Forum 18 News Service their frustration, irritation and fear
over the controversial and highly bureaucratic compulsory re-registration
process. "They torture us with their bureaucratic demands," the leader of
one community who asked not to be identified complained to Forum 18. More
than seven months after re-registration applications began arriving at the
State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations in the capital Baku,
and more than three months after the submission deadline expired, Committee
officials have admitted that fewer than half the applications from existing
registered communities have been processed and approved. Some other
communities have been told – on what they insist to Forum 18 are arbitrary
grounds – that their applications are being rejected.
Hundreds of other communities which did not have registration are also
waiting for their first-time applications to be processed. Forum 18 knows
of one Baptist church – in the town of Aliabad, in the north-western region
of Zakatala – which has been obstructed from lodging an application for
more than 15 years. The local state notary arbitrarily refuses to notarise
the founders’ signatures on the application, meaning that the application
cannot get beyond the first stage (see F18News 21 December 2009
< e_id=1389>).
State Committee spokesperson Gunduz Ismailov confirmed to the local news
agency APA on 6 April that only 252 of the 534 communities which had
registration under the old Religion Law have successfully achieved
re-registration. He admitted that some 700 other communities are awaiting
re-registration, or registration for the first time.
The compulsory re-registration (the third since Azerbaijan gained
independence in 1991) was mandated by the harsh revisions to the Religion
Law which came into force in May 2009. Article 12 of the revised Law
implies that unregistered religious activity is illegal – in violation of
Azerbaijan’s international human rights commitments. Furthermore, Muslim
communities can only get registration if they are part of the state-backed
Caucasian Muslim Board (see F18News 3 June 2009
< e_id=1305>).
However, the Religious Affairs Office in Nakhichevan – an exclave wedged
between Armenia, Iran and Turkey which is an autonomous republic of
Azerbaijan – insisted to Forum 18 in December 2009 that no re-registration
requirement exists there (see F18News 21 December 2009
< e_id=1389>).
Why is registration needed?
While law-makers who adopted the new Religion Law and State Committee
officials failed to explain why they insist that registration is necessary
before religious communities can function, some religious communities have
defended their right to function whether or not they have state
registration.
"Our people don’t even apply for registration," one reader of the works of
the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi told Forum 18 on 7 April. He
pointed out that Article 18 of Azerbaijan’s Constitution guarantees freedom
of conscience and freedom of worship making no reference to any requirement
for state registration.
Nursi readers have in recent years been subjected to police raids, fines
and literature confiscations (see F18News 25 February 2010
< e_id=1414>).
Taking a similar stance are members of the Council of Churches Baptists in
Azerbaijan. Like their counterparts elsewhere, they reject state
registration in principle, arguing that it leads to state interference in
their internal church life.
State Committee official denies "unprofessional work"
The official who on 7 April answered Ismailov’s telephone at the State
Committee – who would not give his name – dismissed suggestions that the
failure to re-register more than half the registered religious communities
over a seven month period was the fault of State Committee officials. "It
is not a question of our unprofessional work," he insisted to Forum 18.
"We’ve had lots of work to do and so many applications came in."
The official denied the frequent complaint from religious communities that
lots of bureaucracy was involved in lodging applications. "Anyone who
lodges an application will get re-registration." Asked in particular why
the Baptist church in Aliabad has been trying to register in vain for more
than 15 years, the official put the phone down.
Despite widespread dissatisfaction among religious communities, Forum 18
has found that few of them are prepared to voice their concerns on the
record for fear of jeopardising their chances – however slim – of achieving
re-registration. Without re-registration, communities would be at risk of
police raids and other harassment.
Refusals to consider re-registration applications
State Committee officials have told some religious communities bluntly that
their re-registration applications will not be considered. These include
the communities of mosques closed and confiscated by the authorities in
2008 and 2009, such as the Fatima Zahra mosque in Baku’s Yeni Guneshli
district and the Juma Mosque in Shahsevenler district of Azerbaijan’s
second city Gyanja [Gäncä], the only Sunni Muslim mosque in the city.
The Fatima Zahra mosque, the only mosque for a residential district of some
70,000 people, was closed by police in summer 2009 and is threatened with
demolition (see F18News 26 January 2010
< e_id=1398>).
Tofig Razizade, leader of the Fatima Zahra mosque community, told Forum 18
that it lodged its re-registration application in November 2009 after the
enforced closure. However, the State Committee responded in February 2010
that the application is invalid and will depend on the outcome of a Supreme
Court hearing over the building’s possible demolition, now due to take
place on 14 April.
"We’re not a new community – we were registered in 1995 and re-registered
in 1997," Razizade told Forum 18 from Baku on 6 April. "We didn’t get
re-registration in 2002 only because the State Committee objected to the
name of the mosque. We have a letter of recommendation from Sheikh-ul-Islam
Pashazade from the Muslim Board. We told the State Committee that we don’t
want anything from them except to be allowed to pray."
Vidadi Abbasov of the Sunni Muslim community in Gyanja told Forum 18 that
in the wake of the closure of their mosque by the authorities during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan in September 2009, it was told it cannot lodge
a re-registration activity. The community lodged an application before its
enforced closure, but officials insist this is not valid (see F18News 18
September 2009 < 1350>).
"All we want is to be allowed to reopen our mosque or to be given a new
mosque to pray in," Abbasov told Forum 18 from Gyanja on 7 April. He
insists that the current registration under the old Religion Law has not
been annulled through the courts.
Also rejected outright with no explanation was the re-registration
application of the Baku International Fellowship, an English-language
Protestant community largely made up of expatriates. The Fellowship gained
registration only with difficulty in April 2003 (see F18News 1 November
2005 < 680>).
David Fortune, the Fellowship’s Canadian pastor, notes that the
re-registration application was submitted before the 1 January 2010
deadline. "We continue to try and submit our application," he told Forum 18
from Baku on 7 April. Fortune points to the knock-on effect on the
congregation, with the Migration Department now rejecting visas for its
foreign staff. One staff member has already had to leave Azerbaijan this
year.
"The only reason given for this rejection was that we had ‘no basis for
being in the country’," Fortune told Forum 18. "We don’t understand this
since we still have the old registration. Someone at the Migration
Department said that they were still giving visa for religious workers but
they could not comment on a specific case such as ours." The State
Committee has refused to help church members resolve the visa problem with
the Migration Department.
Other rejections "not final"
Three other religious communities publicly identified by Ismailov of the
State Committee in his 6 April interview as having been denied
re-registration are the Baku Baptist congregation, the Baku Seventh-day
Adventist congregation and the Baku Jehovah’s Witness congregation. Baptist
and Adventist congregations have existed in Baku for more than a century,
though Jehovah’s Witnesses have worshipped there only more recently.
The State Committee wrote to Baku’s Baptist congregation on 19 February,
though the letter only arrived on 19 March, the head of the Baptist Union
Ilya Zenchenko told Forum 18 from Baku on 6 April. The letter told the
church that its application was being refused as only two of the original
ten legal founders of the community were the same and that the community
had added the word "Church" to its official name.
"Some of the people who were the official founders a decade ago are now old
and unwell and we want to include younger active people," Pastor Zenchenko
explained to Forum 18. "We’re not an organisation of ten people but a
church." He complained that the State Committee never warned the church
that it had to use the same founders as before, a complaint Forum 18 has
heard from a number of other faiths.
Pastor Zenchenko insisted to Forum 18 that he still believes the problems
can be resolved and the State Committee will register the congregation.
However, he points out that in March, their church was visited by police
from Narimanov District’s 16th police station four times. "They insisted
that we were acting illegally because we had not been re-registered,"
Zenchenko told Forum 18. "They’re supposed to be guardians of the law, but
we had to explain that until a court liquidates us our registration remains
valid."
Forum 18 has also learnt that the State Committee wrote a similar rejection
letter to Baku’s Adventist church on 19 February, though the church did not
receive it until 1 April. Committee officials told the Adventists that now
their application has been rejected it will have to apply for registration
as a new community. Forum 18 understands that the community will apply for
registration as a new community.
Jehovah’s Witnesses confirmed to Forum 18 that the State Committee had
written regarding the fact that their Baku community could not be
re-registered because of allegedly technical problems in the application.
"But this doesn’t mean that we’re automatically deregistered – it wasn’t a
final decision. We’re still in negotiation with the State Committee,"
Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 on 7 April. They point out that a court
order to liquidate a religious community is needed before the existing
legal status is removed.
Who has got re-registration?
While the Muslim Board was the first to be re-registered, the Russian
Orthodox diocese was second. Others among the 252 communities which had
gained re-registration by 6 April were mosques, Baku’s Hare Krishna
community, six different Jewish communities, two Molokan communities (in
Baku and Sumgait) and Baku’s New Life Protestant church.
In addition to the 252 re-registered communities, Baku’s Baha’i community
told Forum 18 on 7 April that it had just been told it can come to collect
its re-registration certificate from the State Committee on 8 April.
Many others still wait
Forum 18 has learnt that many mosques, almost all the other currently
registered Christian communities, as well as communities of other faiths,
are still waiting for a response to their re-registration applications. "We
applied for re-registration back in September 2009 as one of the first,"
the leader of one community who asked not to be identified told Forum 18 on
7 April. "When we go to ask they say there are more than 700 others
waiting, so you’ll have to wait some more. But how can this be when we were
among the first to apply?"
Pastor Rasim Hasanov, who heads the Evangelical Alliance, which brings
together many Protestant congregations, complains that the only Protestant
church to have achieved re-registration is New Life Church. "Many others
have presented their applications," he told Forum 18 from Baku on 7 April.
"What our Evangelical Alliance wants is for all Christian churches to be
granted registration by the government and receive their certificate, and
to be able to freely worship our God."
Pastor Hasanov’s own church – the Temple of the Lord, an Assemblies of God
congregation – has been seeking registration in vain since 2006 (see
F18News 6 November 2008
< e_id=1214>).
Among Christian communities, Pastor Zenchenko of the Baptist Union said it
is still waiting to receive any response over its communities in Sumgait
and Gyanja, as is the Adventist church over its congregation in Gyanja.
Baku’s Catholic parish and Lutheran congregation are likewise still waiting
for re-registration, as is the one currently registered Georgian Orthodox
parish in Gakh in north-western Azerbaijan near the border with Georgia.
The head of Azerbaijan’s Catholic community, Fr Vladimir Fekete, told Forum
18 from Baku on 7 April that earlier that day his assistant had been
summoned to the State Committee, where officials had presented in writing
its latest demands to "bring our statute into line with the law". "We are
discussing their demands and asking for light from the Holy Spirit as to
how to proceed," he told Forum 18.
Svetlana Stepanova, president in Azerbaijan of the New Apostolic Church,
told Forum 18 on 7 April that her congregation in Baku was only able to
apply for re-registration in February 2010, as it was waiting for a letter
from its counterpart in Germany which oversees work in Azerbaijan. "We have
twice amended our statute as the State Committee demanded and we are about
to resubmit it," she told Forum 18. "They told us that until they are happy
with that we should not submit the rest of the documents they need to have,
even though we have them ready."
Despite the re-registration of the Caucasian Muslim Board and the Russian
Orthodox diocese, both of them national bodies able to function throughout
Azerbaijan, State Committee officials have told other communities seeking
to register a national body that no such category exists and therefore they
cannot be registered. Forum 18 knows of several such national bodies for
different faiths whose re-registration or registration applications are
languishing with no response. (END)
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>.
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
< _id=482>.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;.
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
