Azerbaijan--Christian Persecution in Azerbaijan

Asia: Azerbaijan Country Report Last Updated: April 2003 Code: A-2 (Click here for a code description.)
	(Click here for a list of ICC articles on Azerbaijan.) List of Articles Last Updated: December 1, 1999

Religious Atmosphere: Shi’ite Islam is the traditional religion of the Azeris. Islam overall comprises about 93% of the population. Russian and Armenian Orthodox together comprise almost 5%.

Extremist Groups:

• No extremist groups have been cited for incidences of persecution in this country.

Government:

• The constitution provides for the separation of church and state and holds that all religions are equal before the law. It also provides citizens the right to "profess, individually or together with others, any religion or to profess no religion, to express and spread one’s beliefs concerning religions."
      
• Anti-Armenian sentiment has resulted in the departure of most Armenians and the closing of Armenian Churches.
      
• Only the Roman Catholic Church has been granted formal registration status in the past 6 years while the Baptist, Adventist and Greater Grace churches had previous status. Several churches have been refused or delayed in their attempts to gain legal registration. Among these are the Pentecostal Church, Word of Life, and the Unregistered Baptists.
        

RECENT ACTIONS
 

• 8/21/03 AZERBAIJAN (ANS)
  -- A Baptist church has been raided and declared illegal and the only two ethnic Azeri members of the congregation have been singled out for interrogation and fined. On July13 police raided a Baptist service being held in a private apartment in Gyanja, Azerbaijan, according to a report from Forum 18 (http://www.forum18.org/).  The police interrupted the service during the sermon and declared the gathering to be illegal because it was not a registered church. They then proceeded to take Zaur Ismailov and Magomet Musayev to the police station and
  interrogate them for three hours; they were interrogated for similar three hour stretches over the next few days as well.
   

• March 13-14, 2003 - Two days in a row Anzor Katsiashvili, a Baptist church leader, was summoned by the local procurator and warned not to continue holding religious meetings in his home because he is not an Azerbaijani citizen. However, Katsiashvili says he has tried to become a citizen and was refused because he preaches. Authorities deny these accusations. Katsiashvili's small congregation has been harassed numerous times (F-18 News).
  
   

• 2/25/03 Azerbaijan:
  Muslims Threaten To Sacrifice Adventist Pastor As A "Holy Duty"  Police Refuse To Protect Pastor (Forum 18)
  Police have refused to protect an Adventist pastor in Nakhichevan (Naxçivan), who has been threatened by local men with death or being driven out of the community. "People phone and come to my house to threaten us but the authorities have refused to help," Pastor Khalid Babaev told Forum 18 News Service. Pastor Babaev fears for the safety of his wife and son, and does not know if it will be safe to hold a service as usual next Saturday. Local Muslims have threatened to sacrifice Babaev as a holy duty and to halt Adventist religious activity in Nakhichevan. If Pastor Babaev holds another service, he has been told that a mob will be collected to attack his house. The police have refused to discuss the threats with Forum 18, or say what they would do to protect church members from the threatened violence.
   

• 2/13/04 Azerbaijan
  Baptist Pastor Called Traitor for Spreading Christianity
  A deputy head of police has threatened a Baptist Pastor, trying "to drive him out of the town, ban him from visiting and insulted him as a 'traitor' for having adopted Christianity," the leader of the Baptist church in Azerbaijan has told Forum 18 News Service. This is one of many problems Baptists have, including other threats from local police officers and congregations being unable to get state registration. An Azeri-language Baptist church has been closed down and its pastor banned from preaching and subjected to a harsh media campaign. Also, 50,000 Azeri-language New Testaments have been denied entry to Azerbaijan. Baptists have told Forum 18 of their opposition to attempts to crush the Muslim community of Baku's Juma mosque led by imprisoned imam Ilgar Ibrahimoglu Allahverdiev. The Baptists have been prominent in his defence, pointing out that his arrest "testifies to the intentions of the authorities to restrict even further the religious freedom not only of Baptists but of all believers in Azerbaijan".
      

• February 24, 2002 - Police in Gyanja, western Azerbaijan, halted a meeting at the local Adventist Church, demanding to see the church's registration certificate. The pastor explained that the certificate had been sent to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organization as a part of the re-registration process. However, the officers refused to listen and asked to see identity documents for some of those present. The church has been told it cannot hold services until its registration certificate is received. Officials planned to seal off the church in the meantime. (Keston)
     
• January 18, 2002 - Two Pentecostal pastors were arrested while holding a prayer meeting in a private apartment. Yusuf Farkhadov and Kasym Kasymov were detained by police and members of the National Security Ministry in Sumgait, near Baku. The two were sentenced to 15 days in prison.
  
• July 6, 2001 – Journalist Shahla Abdinova and cinematographer Ilgar infiltrated the Ganja Adventist Church, claiming to be seekers and secretly videotaping the church activities under the guise of personal videography. When asked if they were journalists, they denied and for three weeks attended church events and services, visited member homes and on June 2 videotaped a wedding, supposedly as a gift for the bridegroom. On June 7 the "Xabeler" program, ANS TV, broadcasted a five-minute "documentary" on the Ganja Adventist Church, representing the church as "an unknown, secret and almost covert organization." Adventists for 32 years have been registered in Azerbaijan, and trace roots back 100 years. The "documentary" also represented false information, including false requirements for church members, false member numbers, and false finance information.
   
• April 20, 2001 – Azer Gasymov was released from prison after 10 days. Upon returning to work at the Ismailly’s Central Hospital he was pressured to resign by his superior and other co-workers. Constant pressure and mocking finally caused Mr. Gasymov to turn in his resignation at the end of April.
   
• April 10, 2001 – Two members of a house church in Ismailly were given jail sentences for "disobeying the police." This occurred only three days after Asif Mardanov and Azer Gasymov, along with five other members of their church had been briefly detained while picnicking in a park. They were searched without a proper warrant and their personal possessions were confiscated. The church’s pastor, Roman Abramov, has been harrassed by both local police and Muslim mullahs, who told him he should stop his activities because "Azerbaijan is a Muslim country." A judge agreed to allow Asif Mardnov to exchange his jail sentence for a fine due to Mardanov’s diabetic condition.
    
• November 8, 1999 – President Heidar Aliev revoked a Baku court’s decision to deport nine foreign nationals, including eight people who had attended a church service in Baku (see below). Also scheduled to be deported was Rev. Gunther Oborski of Germany, pastor of the German Lutheran Church. President Aliev overturned the court’s ruling due to pressure from abroad. He also reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s commitment to religious freedom.
   
• September 5, 1999 – Police raided a church service at the Baku Baptist church, arresting 60 members of the congregation. The two Christians leading the service were sentenced to 15 days in prison for "resisting the police." A Baku court also ordered the deportation of eight foreign Christians who had attended the service.
   
• April 1997 – Zaur Balayev, the minister of a Baptist church, was imprisoned for 17 days. In the summer of the same year, he was imprisoned again for a short period along with Bard Sabanov, a member of the congregation. Azerbaijani officials accuse the Baptists, who are of Georgian descent, of having a pro-Georgian political agenda. Despite repeated denials of this claim, the harassment is reported to continue.

Prisoners: None other than the short detainments mentioned above.

Suggested Actions You Might Take:

• Pray for the Christians of Azerbaijan that they may continue to be protected from harm and that the Christian message may be heard and received by all.
     
• Write a respectful letter to one or more of the government officials listed below. Express your continuing concern for the safety and well being of each Christian community in Azerbaijan. Request information about what steps the government is taking to ensure their protection and freedom to practice their faith as laid out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights documents.
     
• Contact the elected national officials (Senators, Congressman etc.) for your area as well as the U.S. State Department and express concern for the well being of the Christians in Azerbaijan asking them to make an inquiry into their status.
      
• Please keep us informed of any replies or results you may receive! Contact ICC by email at icc@persecution.org.

POSTED:  April 22, 2003

ICC Articles on Azerbaijan:

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