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FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
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
=================================================
Friday 22 April 2005
TURKMENISTAN: WILL REGISTRATION END HARASSMENT OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES?
Amid continuing international pressure, five Protestant Churches are being
granted registration, though no Armenian Apostolic, Lutheran, Jewish,
Yezidi or Jehovah's Witness activity is yet allowed (all unregistered
religious activity remains illegal). Pastor Viktor Makrousov of the Full
Gospel Church told Forum 18 News Service he still has to go to 20 offices
to complete the registration process. He will work to regain his
confiscated church. He hopes harassment - such as threats to
Pentecostals in early April - will come to an end. Meanwhile all
four imprisoned Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors were freed by
presidential decree in mid-April, but not former chief mufti, Nasrullah
ibn Ibadullah, serving a 22-year sentence.
TURKMENISTAN: WILL REGISTRATION END HARASSMENT OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
More than ten months after first applying for state registration, the
Greater Grace Church in the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] is among five
religious communities that have nearly completed the registration process,
Forum 18 News Service has leant. The Church's pastor Vladimir Tolmachev
told Forum 18 on 22 April that his church still had to get a registration
number from the state registry and inform the Interior Ministry's sixth
department (which handles religious affairs, terrorism and drug crime) of
his church's legal status "so that they won't have complaints against
us". Then, he hopes, the church will be able to start renting a hall
to hold legal worship services for the first time in more than eight
years.
The five newly-approved religious communities - the Church of Christ, the
Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Ashgabad, Light of the East Pentecostal
Church in the northern city of Dashoguz, and the New Apostolic Church in
Ashgabad - join four other minority faiths (Baha'is, Baptists, Hare
Krishna and Adventists) registered last year. "It was more than six
months after the Baptists got registration before they were able to rent
premises for services," Pastor Tolmachev told Forum 18. "I hope
it will be quicker for us."
Also hoping for improvements for his community is Pastor Viktor Makrousov,
who leads the Full Gospel church. "We're happy we've at last got
registration," he told Forum 18 from Ashgabad on 22 April. "They
suddenly phoned up last Sunday [17 April] and told me to come in urgently
as we were getting registration, though just three days earlier when we
phoned them they had no progress to report. Perhaps they had an order from
above. But we still have to go to about twenty offices to complete the
process."
Makrousov said he hopes the church will soon be able to rent premises for
worship as soon as the registration process is complete. "Meeting in
private flats is cramped, but we've got nowhere else to meet. We'll also
get working on trying to regain our Ashgabad church confiscated in
2001." He also hopes that harassment of church members - such
as the summoning and threatening of several Pentecostals in the Caspian
port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) in early April -
will come to an end.
The New Apostolic Church has also confirmed to Forum 18 that its church in
Ashgabad is being given registration. In the wake of insistence by
officials that religious activity was illegal, the Church chose to abide
by the law and officially halted all its religious and communal activity.
However, the activity of registered communities remains restricted, with
officials insisting that no religious meetings can be held in private
homes. Registered congregations are also pressured to subscribe to the
grotesque cult of personality around the country's president, Saparmurat
Niyazov, which focuses particularly on the two-volume book the Ruhnama
(Book of the Soul) which he claims to have written (see F18News 1 March
2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=522).
Significantly, all five religious communities to receive registration are
Protestant churches, adding to widespread belief that the arbitrary
granting of legal status was the result of intense pressure from the
international community. The Armenian Apostolic Church has seen no
progress so far in registering a community or regaining its historical
church in Turkmenbashi. No Jewish, Lutheran, Catholic, Jehovah's Witness
or Yezidi community has been registered. No progress appears to be in
sight over the hundreds of Muslim communities stripped of registration in
the wake of the 1996 amendments to the religion law. (Last year a number
of mosques were demolished - see F18News 31 January 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=501).
When the Catholics tried to lodge their registration application with the
Adalat (Justice) Ministry in mid-April, officials refused to accept the
documents as Fr Andrzej Madej, the Polish priest who heads the mission in
Ashgabad, was listed as the leader. "Officials told us the leader has
to be a local citizen," the Catholic community told Forum 18 on 22
April. "We can only have Fr Andrzej as the leader - that is our
rule. We hope the government will be able to accept this."
Jehovah's Witnesses reported that they have not yet applied for
registration. Given the continuing ban on unregistered religious activity
in Turkmenistan, this means any activity they undertake is illegal.
"We are still facing minor problems, but nothing serious of
late," one Jehovah's Witness told Forum 18 on 22 April.
At the same time the Hare Krishna community in Ashgabad - which was
given registration last summer - has reportedly been prevented from
meeting for worship. Members of a Baptist congregation in the eastern city
of Turkmenabad (formerly Charjou) were fined in March and two families were
evicted from their hostels in punishment for meeting for worship, despite
being part of a registered church (see F18News 31 March 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=535).
All four known Jehovah's Witness prisoners - Begench Shakhmuradov,
Atamurat Suvkhanov, Mansur Masharipov and Vepa Tuvakov - were freed
last weekend in the wake of a surprise presidential decree and are now
back at home with their families, Jehovah's Witnesses have told Forum 18.
The four were all named in the 16 April decree, though significantly the
decree did not reveal that all four had been sentenced for rejecting
compulsory military service on grounds of religious conscience.
Three of the four had been sentenced by Dashoguz court - Masharipov on 28
May 2004, Tuvakov on 3 July 2004 and Suvkhanov on 17 December 2004 - while
Shakhmuradov had been sentenced by Azatlyk court in Ashgabad on 10 February
2005 (see F18News 17 February 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=514). All were sentenced
under Article 219 of the Criminal Code, which punishes refusal to serve in
the armed forces. Turkmenistan offers no non-combat alternative to those
who cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience.
Their release leaves one known religious prisoner, the 57-year-old former
chief mufti, Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah, who was arrested after falling out
with President Niyazov and is now serving a 22-year sentence on charges
the Turkmen government refuses to make public. There are also believed to
be several imams in internal exile.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296
A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atl as/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(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 http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
--Boundary_(ID_mqq6IheHCbbkjIjM3NM8tw)--
http://www.forum18.org/
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
=================================================
Friday 22 April 2005
TURKMENISTAN: WILL REGISTRATION END HARASSMENT OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES?
Amid continuing international pressure, five Protestant Churches are being
granted registration, though no Armenian Apostolic, Lutheran, Jewish,
Yezidi or Jehovah's Witness activity is yet allowed (all unregistered
religious activity remains illegal). Pastor Viktor Makrousov of the Full
Gospel Church told Forum 18 News Service he still has to go to 20 offices
to complete the registration process. He will work to regain his
confiscated church. He hopes harassment - such as threats to
Pentecostals in early April - will come to an end. Meanwhile all
four imprisoned Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors were freed by
presidential decree in mid-April, but not former chief mufti, Nasrullah
ibn Ibadullah, serving a 22-year sentence.
TURKMENISTAN: WILL REGISTRATION END HARASSMENT OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
More than ten months after first applying for state registration, the
Greater Grace Church in the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] is among five
religious communities that have nearly completed the registration process,
Forum 18 News Service has leant. The Church's pastor Vladimir Tolmachev
told Forum 18 on 22 April that his church still had to get a registration
number from the state registry and inform the Interior Ministry's sixth
department (which handles religious affairs, terrorism and drug crime) of
his church's legal status "so that they won't have complaints against
us". Then, he hopes, the church will be able to start renting a hall
to hold legal worship services for the first time in more than eight
years.
The five newly-approved religious communities - the Church of Christ, the
Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Ashgabad, Light of the East Pentecostal
Church in the northern city of Dashoguz, and the New Apostolic Church in
Ashgabad - join four other minority faiths (Baha'is, Baptists, Hare
Krishna and Adventists) registered last year. "It was more than six
months after the Baptists got registration before they were able to rent
premises for services," Pastor Tolmachev told Forum 18. "I hope
it will be quicker for us."
Also hoping for improvements for his community is Pastor Viktor Makrousov,
who leads the Full Gospel church. "We're happy we've at last got
registration," he told Forum 18 from Ashgabad on 22 April. "They
suddenly phoned up last Sunday [17 April] and told me to come in urgently
as we were getting registration, though just three days earlier when we
phoned them they had no progress to report. Perhaps they had an order from
above. But we still have to go to about twenty offices to complete the
process."
Makrousov said he hopes the church will soon be able to rent premises for
worship as soon as the registration process is complete. "Meeting in
private flats is cramped, but we've got nowhere else to meet. We'll also
get working on trying to regain our Ashgabad church confiscated in
2001." He also hopes that harassment of church members - such
as the summoning and threatening of several Pentecostals in the Caspian
port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) in early April -
will come to an end.
The New Apostolic Church has also confirmed to Forum 18 that its church in
Ashgabad is being given registration. In the wake of insistence by
officials that religious activity was illegal, the Church chose to abide
by the law and officially halted all its religious and communal activity.
However, the activity of registered communities remains restricted, with
officials insisting that no religious meetings can be held in private
homes. Registered congregations are also pressured to subscribe to the
grotesque cult of personality around the country's president, Saparmurat
Niyazov, which focuses particularly on the two-volume book the Ruhnama
(Book of the Soul) which he claims to have written (see F18News 1 March
2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=522).
Significantly, all five religious communities to receive registration are
Protestant churches, adding to widespread belief that the arbitrary
granting of legal status was the result of intense pressure from the
international community. The Armenian Apostolic Church has seen no
progress so far in registering a community or regaining its historical
church in Turkmenbashi. No Jewish, Lutheran, Catholic, Jehovah's Witness
or Yezidi community has been registered. No progress appears to be in
sight over the hundreds of Muslim communities stripped of registration in
the wake of the 1996 amendments to the religion law. (Last year a number
of mosques were demolished - see F18News 31 January 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=501).
When the Catholics tried to lodge their registration application with the
Adalat (Justice) Ministry in mid-April, officials refused to accept the
documents as Fr Andrzej Madej, the Polish priest who heads the mission in
Ashgabad, was listed as the leader. "Officials told us the leader has
to be a local citizen," the Catholic community told Forum 18 on 22
April. "We can only have Fr Andrzej as the leader - that is our
rule. We hope the government will be able to accept this."
Jehovah's Witnesses reported that they have not yet applied for
registration. Given the continuing ban on unregistered religious activity
in Turkmenistan, this means any activity they undertake is illegal.
"We are still facing minor problems, but nothing serious of
late," one Jehovah's Witness told Forum 18 on 22 April.
At the same time the Hare Krishna community in Ashgabad - which was
given registration last summer - has reportedly been prevented from
meeting for worship. Members of a Baptist congregation in the eastern city
of Turkmenabad (formerly Charjou) were fined in March and two families were
evicted from their hostels in punishment for meeting for worship, despite
being part of a registered church (see F18News 31 March 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=535).
All four known Jehovah's Witness prisoners - Begench Shakhmuradov,
Atamurat Suvkhanov, Mansur Masharipov and Vepa Tuvakov - were freed
last weekend in the wake of a surprise presidential decree and are now
back at home with their families, Jehovah's Witnesses have told Forum 18.
The four were all named in the 16 April decree, though significantly the
decree did not reveal that all four had been sentenced for rejecting
compulsory military service on grounds of religious conscience.
Three of the four had been sentenced by Dashoguz court - Masharipov on 28
May 2004, Tuvakov on 3 July 2004 and Suvkhanov on 17 December 2004 - while
Shakhmuradov had been sentenced by Azatlyk court in Ashgabad on 10 February
2005 (see F18News 17 February 2005
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=514). All were sentenced
under Article 219 of the Criminal Code, which punishes refusal to serve in
the armed forces. Turkmenistan offers no non-combat alternative to those
who cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience.
Their release leaves one known religious prisoner, the 57-year-old former
chief mufti, Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah, who was arrested after falling out
with President Niyazov and is now serving a 22-year sentence on charges
the Turkmen government refuses to make public. There are also believed to
be several imams in internal exile.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296
A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atl as/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(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 http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
--Boundary_(ID_mqq6IheHCbbkjIjM3NM8tw)--