Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

F18News: Azerbaijan - Official denies "unprofessional work"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • F18News: Azerbaijan - Official denies "unprofessional work"

    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

    ========================================== =====
    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 <http://www.forum18.org>

    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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 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 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl 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 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1192>.

    More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan is
    at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=& 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
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=1351>.

    For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
    community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=482>.

    A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition 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 http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X