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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
===============================================
Monday 16 February 2015
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN DETENTIONS WITHOUT TRIAL, BEATINGS AND ATTEMPTED
KIDNAPPING
Three Muslims who read the works of the late Turkish theologian Said Nursi
were freed from prison on 11 February in the Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhichevan. Two were seized in Nakhichevan and the third in Baku and
transferred to the exclave. All three were held without any court approval.
They were beaten to force them to "confess" to a "crime" (distributing
anti-government leaflets) one of their friends insisted to Forum 18 News
Service they had nothing to do with. Police have confiscated passports from
all three to prevent them leaving the exclave. A fourth fled to Turkey to
evade possible arrest, though Azerbaijani police tried to kidnap him there.
The Head of Nakhichevan's Department for Work with Religious Organisations
Vuqar Babayev declined to discuss the cases with Forum 18. About six of the
200 or so Muslims arrested in November 2014 are still in detention, Yafez
Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18. Several are being
investigated on treason charges. Most of the 50 Nakhichevan mosques
forcibly closed in November 2014 have reopened, but under new leadership
"closer to the authorities".
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN DETENTIONS WITHOUT TRIAL, BEATINGS AND ATTEMPTED
KIDNAPPING
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id38
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
On 11 February three Sunni Muslims who read the works of the late Turkish
theologian Said Nursi were freed from prison in the Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhichevan [Naxçivan], their friends told Forum 18 News Service. The three
had been held without any court approval for two and a half weeks and are
said to have been beaten. Police had seized one of the three in the
Azerbaijani capital Baku and forcibly put him on a flight to Nakhichevan.
Police have confiscated passports from all three to prevent them leaving
the exclave. It remains unclear if they will face prosecution and, if so,
for what reason.
A fourth Muslim fled to neighbouring Turkey to evade possible arrest.
Azerbaijani attempts to seize him back failed. An Azerbaijani consular
official in the Turkish city of Kars denied all knowledge of the case (see
below).
Meanwhile, at least six or seven of the 200 or so Muslims arrested in a
government crackdown in Nakhichevan in November 2014 are believed still to
be in detention, Yafez Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18 on 16
February 2015. One was sent to prison for two months, apparently without
trial, while two or three others are in prison under investigation on
treason charges (see below).
The telephone of Nakhichevan Interior Minister Ahmad Ahmadov went
unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 16 February. His deputy Qulu
Rustamov put the phone down on 16 February as soon as Forum 18 introduced
itself. The Head of Nakhichevan's Department for Work with Religious
Organisations Vuqar Babayev declined to discuss the cases the same day,
referring all questions to the Interior Ministry.
"The men were targeted because of their religious activity," one of the
three men's friends insisted to Forum 18. "They read Risale-i Nur [Messages
of Light, Nursi's collection of sermons]. Nakhichevan is a small place and
everyone knows this."
The friend said fellow Muslims in Nakhichevan who read Nursi's works "face
such problems at minimum once a year". Forum 18 has been unable to find out
why they were targeted this time.
During the November 2014 mass arrests, about 60 Muslims who read Nursi's
works were held only for a day or so before being freed (see F18News 4
December 2014 ).
Severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief
Nakhichevan - an autonomous territory of Azerbaijan on the Arax river
wedged between Armenia, Turkey and Iran - has a population of more than
400,000 and its own government and parliament. The autonomous territory's
restrictions on people's ability to exercise human rights, including
freedom of religion or belief and other political and social freedoms are
far tighter than in the rest of Azerbaijan. These include a de facto ban on
people exercising freedom of religion or belief who are Shia Muslims
outside state control, almost all Sunni Muslims meeting as communities, and
non-Muslims such as Baha'is, Seventh-day Adventists, Hare Krishna devotees,
or Russian Orthodox (see F18News 4 December 2014
).
Arrested or seized?
Police seized two of the three Muslims in Nakhichevan city, the capital of
the exclave, on 24 January, their friends - who asked not to be identified
for fear of state reprisals - told Forum 18. Police showed no warrant for
the men's arrest and no court approved their detention.
At about the same time, police came to the Baku home of the third man, who
is originally from Nakhichevan but now lives and works in the Azerbaijani
capital. After seizing him they forcibly put him on a plane to Nakhichevan.
On arrival he was transferred to prison. "Officers gave no reason for his
detention and showed no documentation," friends told Forum 18. "His family
didn't know where he had been taken. Only when they asked the police did
they learn that he had been taken to Nakhichevan."
The three men were taken to the Justice Ministry's Pre-trial Detention
Centre in the village of Boyukduz in Kangarli District, 20 kms (12 miles)
north-west of Nakhichevan city.
Beaten, forced to confess
Once in detention, the three men were kicked and beaten "in various places"
and threats were made against their families, the men's friends complained
to Forum 18. Police pressured them to sign statements confessing to
"crimes". The men apparently did so as a result of what their friends
describe as "torture" and their "confessions" were filmed. Although their
friends believe the "confessions" were filmed for subsequent showing on
Nakhichevan television, they do not appear to have been broadcast yet.
Police officers were seeking "confessions" from the men that they were
responsible for an incident in 2013, when leaflets criticising
Nakhichevan's rulers were thrown from a car window in central Nakhichevan
city. "But they had nothing to do with it," the three men's friends
insisted to Forum 18.
Police have long been under political pressure to find those responsible,
and others have earlier been pressured to admit to the "crime", Akramoglu
of Radio Free Europe - a Nakhichevan native who was deported from the
exclave in 2011 - told Forum 18.
Released, but can't leave Nakhichevan
The three men were released from prison on 11 February but, as their
passports have been seized, they are unable to leave the exclave. Their
friends do not know if they will face administrative or criminal
prosecution. The three men do not have a lawyer. "No lawyers in Nakhichevan
would dare to defend them," one of their friends told Forum 18.
One who got away
Another Nakhichevan-based Muslim associated with the other three, Chingiz
Talibov, fled to neighbouring Turkey in late January to avoid what he
feared would be his detention, his friends told Forum 18.
Once in Turkey, he was contacted by the Azerbaijani Consulate in the town
of Igdir, 85 kms (50 miles) from the land border with Nakhichevan. His
friends say Consulate officials "tricked him" into coming to visit. Three
plain-clothed Azerbaijani police from Nakhichevan then tried to "kidnap"
him in an apparent attempt to return him forcibly to Azerbaijan. However,
Turkish police witnessed the kidnap attempt on the street and intervened to
protect him. The Turkish authorities then deported the three plain clothes
police officers back to Azerbaijan.
Nakhichevan police have in the past tried to kidnap in Turkey people from
Nakhichevan they wanted back, Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18.
After the failed kidnapping, the Nakhichevan authorities stepped up
pressure on Talibov's family in an apparent attempt to force his return
home, his friends told Forum 18.
Ramin Yusubov, Vice-Consul at Azerbaijan's Consulate in Kars (which
oversees the consular office in Igdir) claimed to Forum 18 on 16 February
that "we know nothing about this". He insisted that Talibov "didn't come to
the Consulate either in Kars or in Igdir". And he added: "There was no
deportation by the Turkish authorities of any Azerbaijani police officers.
If there had, we would have known about it."
Detention with no trial, investigation
During the mid-November 2014 crackdown, the authorities arrested about 200
Muslims. While most were released within one or two days (including about
60 Muslims who read Nursi's works), up to 50 of the Muslims were apparently
still in detention in early December 2014. Up to 50 mosques - especially
those Nakhichevan's authorities think are oriented towards Iran - appear to
have been forcibly closed after the arrests (see F18News 4 December 2014
).
However, all but six or seven of those detained are now believed to have
been released, Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18.
Two or three are reportedly being investigated on charges of treason and
contact with the Islamic State movement, which has gained ground in Syria,
Iraq and elsewhere, Akramoglu added. He said it is difficult to assess the
validity of such accusations.
One other of those remaining in detention is serving two months' detention,
although the sentence does not appear to have been handed down by a court
and no specific allegations against him are known, Akramoglu told Forum 18.
New Mosque leadership "closer to the authorities"
Almost all the approximately 50 mosques forcibly closed in November 2014
have now reopened. "Most are under new leadership closer to the
authorities," Akramoglu told Forum 18. "The authorities feared many of them
were too close to the Iranians." Again, he said it was difficult to assess
the validity of the state's accusations. The new imams were imposed on the
mosques by the new Multiculturalism and Religious Affairs Committee,
Akramoglu added.
The Multiculturalism Committee, established under an August 2014 Decree,
aims to promote religion "in the right direction", control public rituals,
especially funerals, and counter "religious sects", presumably within the
Muslim community (see F18News 4 December 2014
). Forum 18 was unable
to reach Committee Head Mirhashim Seyidov on 16 February 2015.
Forum 18 was unable to ask Babayev of Nakhichevan's Department for Work
with Religious Organisations why the state-backed Multiculturalism
Committee interfered in the leadership of mosques. He had already put the
phone down before Forum 18 had the opportunity to ask.
"Everyone is of the Muslim religion"
Before he had ended the call, Babayev dismissed concerns Forum 18 has heard
from Nakhichevan over restrictions on freedom of religion or belief. "All
of the people in Nakhichevan are free to go to mosques or churches," he
claimed. When Forum 18 pointed out that no non-Muslim places of worship -
whether Christian churches, Baha'i temples or places of worship of any
other faith - operate in Nakhichevan, he claimed: "There are no churches
because everyone in Nakhichevan is of the Muslim religion."
The exclave's authorities have long had a de facto ban on religious
activity by non-Muslim communities. Small groups of Baha'is, Seventh-day
Adventists and Hare Krishna devotees were banned from meeting in the 2000s.
Faik Farajov, then of the Department for Work with Religious Organisations,
told Forum 18 in January 2010 that no non-Muslim communities exist. "The
Adventists and Baha'is have all left," he claimed (see F18News 21 January
2010 ).
Babayev said Shia Muslims make up 95 per cent of the population and Sunni
Muslims the rest. Asked why Sunni Muslims have difficulty maintaining
mosques, he said: "They must go to Shia mosques. Who wants a Sunni mosque?"
Told that Forum 18 has spoken to individuals who want to worship in a Sunni
mosque, he admitted that only one of the exclave's 217 mosques is
Sunni-dominated, the Kazim Qarabakir Pasha Mosque in Nakhichevan city.
Also known as the Juma mosque, this was built in the 1990s by the Turkish
government's Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs), which also named
its imam. However, the Nakhichevan authorities did not allow any Turkish
imam to lead the mosque after February 2011. The Mosque was under Shia
leadership for a while (see F18News 13 May 2011
).
When Forum 18 asked why the Nakhichevan authorities appear to believe that
they have the sole right to determine what places of worship of what faith
are allowed to function, Babayev put the phone down. Subsequent calls went
unanswered. (END)
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom
survey at .
More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan is
at .
See also Norwegian Helsinki Committee/Forum 18 report on freedom of
religion or belief in Azerbaijan at:
A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
.
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
.
All Forum 18 News Service material may be referred to, quoted from, or
republished in full, if Forum 18 is credited as the
source.
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855.
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
===============================================
Monday 16 February 2015
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN DETENTIONS WITHOUT TRIAL, BEATINGS AND ATTEMPTED
KIDNAPPING
Three Muslims who read the works of the late Turkish theologian Said Nursi
were freed from prison on 11 February in the Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhichevan. Two were seized in Nakhichevan and the third in Baku and
transferred to the exclave. All three were held without any court approval.
They were beaten to force them to "confess" to a "crime" (distributing
anti-government leaflets) one of their friends insisted to Forum 18 News
Service they had nothing to do with. Police have confiscated passports from
all three to prevent them leaving the exclave. A fourth fled to Turkey to
evade possible arrest, though Azerbaijani police tried to kidnap him there.
The Head of Nakhichevan's Department for Work with Religious Organisations
Vuqar Babayev declined to discuss the cases with Forum 18. About six of the
200 or so Muslims arrested in November 2014 are still in detention, Yafez
Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18. Several are being
investigated on treason charges. Most of the 50 Nakhichevan mosques
forcibly closed in November 2014 have reopened, but under new leadership
"closer to the authorities".
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN DETENTIONS WITHOUT TRIAL, BEATINGS AND ATTEMPTED
KIDNAPPING
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id38
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
On 11 February three Sunni Muslims who read the works of the late Turkish
theologian Said Nursi were freed from prison in the Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhichevan [Naxçivan], their friends told Forum 18 News Service. The three
had been held without any court approval for two and a half weeks and are
said to have been beaten. Police had seized one of the three in the
Azerbaijani capital Baku and forcibly put him on a flight to Nakhichevan.
Police have confiscated passports from all three to prevent them leaving
the exclave. It remains unclear if they will face prosecution and, if so,
for what reason.
A fourth Muslim fled to neighbouring Turkey to evade possible arrest.
Azerbaijani attempts to seize him back failed. An Azerbaijani consular
official in the Turkish city of Kars denied all knowledge of the case (see
below).
Meanwhile, at least six or seven of the 200 or so Muslims arrested in a
government crackdown in Nakhichevan in November 2014 are believed still to
be in detention, Yafez Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18 on 16
February 2015. One was sent to prison for two months, apparently without
trial, while two or three others are in prison under investigation on
treason charges (see below).
The telephone of Nakhichevan Interior Minister Ahmad Ahmadov went
unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 16 February. His deputy Qulu
Rustamov put the phone down on 16 February as soon as Forum 18 introduced
itself. The Head of Nakhichevan's Department for Work with Religious
Organisations Vuqar Babayev declined to discuss the cases the same day,
referring all questions to the Interior Ministry.
"The men were targeted because of their religious activity," one of the
three men's friends insisted to Forum 18. "They read Risale-i Nur [Messages
of Light, Nursi's collection of sermons]. Nakhichevan is a small place and
everyone knows this."
The friend said fellow Muslims in Nakhichevan who read Nursi's works "face
such problems at minimum once a year". Forum 18 has been unable to find out
why they were targeted this time.
During the November 2014 mass arrests, about 60 Muslims who read Nursi's
works were held only for a day or so before being freed (see F18News 4
December 2014 ).
Severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief
Nakhichevan - an autonomous territory of Azerbaijan on the Arax river
wedged between Armenia, Turkey and Iran - has a population of more than
400,000 and its own government and parliament. The autonomous territory's
restrictions on people's ability to exercise human rights, including
freedom of religion or belief and other political and social freedoms are
far tighter than in the rest of Azerbaijan. These include a de facto ban on
people exercising freedom of religion or belief who are Shia Muslims
outside state control, almost all Sunni Muslims meeting as communities, and
non-Muslims such as Baha'is, Seventh-day Adventists, Hare Krishna devotees,
or Russian Orthodox (see F18News 4 December 2014
).
Arrested or seized?
Police seized two of the three Muslims in Nakhichevan city, the capital of
the exclave, on 24 January, their friends - who asked not to be identified
for fear of state reprisals - told Forum 18. Police showed no warrant for
the men's arrest and no court approved their detention.
At about the same time, police came to the Baku home of the third man, who
is originally from Nakhichevan but now lives and works in the Azerbaijani
capital. After seizing him they forcibly put him on a plane to Nakhichevan.
On arrival he was transferred to prison. "Officers gave no reason for his
detention and showed no documentation," friends told Forum 18. "His family
didn't know where he had been taken. Only when they asked the police did
they learn that he had been taken to Nakhichevan."
The three men were taken to the Justice Ministry's Pre-trial Detention
Centre in the village of Boyukduz in Kangarli District, 20 kms (12 miles)
north-west of Nakhichevan city.
Beaten, forced to confess
Once in detention, the three men were kicked and beaten "in various places"
and threats were made against their families, the men's friends complained
to Forum 18. Police pressured them to sign statements confessing to
"crimes". The men apparently did so as a result of what their friends
describe as "torture" and their "confessions" were filmed. Although their
friends believe the "confessions" were filmed for subsequent showing on
Nakhichevan television, they do not appear to have been broadcast yet.
Police officers were seeking "confessions" from the men that they were
responsible for an incident in 2013, when leaflets criticising
Nakhichevan's rulers were thrown from a car window in central Nakhichevan
city. "But they had nothing to do with it," the three men's friends
insisted to Forum 18.
Police have long been under political pressure to find those responsible,
and others have earlier been pressured to admit to the "crime", Akramoglu
of Radio Free Europe - a Nakhichevan native who was deported from the
exclave in 2011 - told Forum 18.
Released, but can't leave Nakhichevan
The three men were released from prison on 11 February but, as their
passports have been seized, they are unable to leave the exclave. Their
friends do not know if they will face administrative or criminal
prosecution. The three men do not have a lawyer. "No lawyers in Nakhichevan
would dare to defend them," one of their friends told Forum 18.
One who got away
Another Nakhichevan-based Muslim associated with the other three, Chingiz
Talibov, fled to neighbouring Turkey in late January to avoid what he
feared would be his detention, his friends told Forum 18.
Once in Turkey, he was contacted by the Azerbaijani Consulate in the town
of Igdir, 85 kms (50 miles) from the land border with Nakhichevan. His
friends say Consulate officials "tricked him" into coming to visit. Three
plain-clothed Azerbaijani police from Nakhichevan then tried to "kidnap"
him in an apparent attempt to return him forcibly to Azerbaijan. However,
Turkish police witnessed the kidnap attempt on the street and intervened to
protect him. The Turkish authorities then deported the three plain clothes
police officers back to Azerbaijan.
Nakhichevan police have in the past tried to kidnap in Turkey people from
Nakhichevan they wanted back, Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18.
After the failed kidnapping, the Nakhichevan authorities stepped up
pressure on Talibov's family in an apparent attempt to force his return
home, his friends told Forum 18.
Ramin Yusubov, Vice-Consul at Azerbaijan's Consulate in Kars (which
oversees the consular office in Igdir) claimed to Forum 18 on 16 February
that "we know nothing about this". He insisted that Talibov "didn't come to
the Consulate either in Kars or in Igdir". And he added: "There was no
deportation by the Turkish authorities of any Azerbaijani police officers.
If there had, we would have known about it."
Detention with no trial, investigation
During the mid-November 2014 crackdown, the authorities arrested about 200
Muslims. While most were released within one or two days (including about
60 Muslims who read Nursi's works), up to 50 of the Muslims were apparently
still in detention in early December 2014. Up to 50 mosques - especially
those Nakhichevan's authorities think are oriented towards Iran - appear to
have been forcibly closed after the arrests (see F18News 4 December 2014
).
However, all but six or seven of those detained are now believed to have
been released, Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe told Forum 18.
Two or three are reportedly being investigated on charges of treason and
contact with the Islamic State movement, which has gained ground in Syria,
Iraq and elsewhere, Akramoglu added. He said it is difficult to assess the
validity of such accusations.
One other of those remaining in detention is serving two months' detention,
although the sentence does not appear to have been handed down by a court
and no specific allegations against him are known, Akramoglu told Forum 18.
New Mosque leadership "closer to the authorities"
Almost all the approximately 50 mosques forcibly closed in November 2014
have now reopened. "Most are under new leadership closer to the
authorities," Akramoglu told Forum 18. "The authorities feared many of them
were too close to the Iranians." Again, he said it was difficult to assess
the validity of the state's accusations. The new imams were imposed on the
mosques by the new Multiculturalism and Religious Affairs Committee,
Akramoglu added.
The Multiculturalism Committee, established under an August 2014 Decree,
aims to promote religion "in the right direction", control public rituals,
especially funerals, and counter "religious sects", presumably within the
Muslim community (see F18News 4 December 2014
). Forum 18 was unable
to reach Committee Head Mirhashim Seyidov on 16 February 2015.
Forum 18 was unable to ask Babayev of Nakhichevan's Department for Work
with Religious Organisations why the state-backed Multiculturalism
Committee interfered in the leadership of mosques. He had already put the
phone down before Forum 18 had the opportunity to ask.
"Everyone is of the Muslim religion"
Before he had ended the call, Babayev dismissed concerns Forum 18 has heard
from Nakhichevan over restrictions on freedom of religion or belief. "All
of the people in Nakhichevan are free to go to mosques or churches," he
claimed. When Forum 18 pointed out that no non-Muslim places of worship -
whether Christian churches, Baha'i temples or places of worship of any
other faith - operate in Nakhichevan, he claimed: "There are no churches
because everyone in Nakhichevan is of the Muslim religion."
The exclave's authorities have long had a de facto ban on religious
activity by non-Muslim communities. Small groups of Baha'is, Seventh-day
Adventists and Hare Krishna devotees were banned from meeting in the 2000s.
Faik Farajov, then of the Department for Work with Religious Organisations,
told Forum 18 in January 2010 that no non-Muslim communities exist. "The
Adventists and Baha'is have all left," he claimed (see F18News 21 January
2010 ).
Babayev said Shia Muslims make up 95 per cent of the population and Sunni
Muslims the rest. Asked why Sunni Muslims have difficulty maintaining
mosques, he said: "They must go to Shia mosques. Who wants a Sunni mosque?"
Told that Forum 18 has spoken to individuals who want to worship in a Sunni
mosque, he admitted that only one of the exclave's 217 mosques is
Sunni-dominated, the Kazim Qarabakir Pasha Mosque in Nakhichevan city.
Also known as the Juma mosque, this was built in the 1990s by the Turkish
government's Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs), which also named
its imam. However, the Nakhichevan authorities did not allow any Turkish
imam to lead the mosque after February 2011. The Mosque was under Shia
leadership for a while (see F18News 13 May 2011
).
When Forum 18 asked why the Nakhichevan authorities appear to believe that
they have the sole right to determine what places of worship of what faith
are allowed to function, Babayev put the phone down. Subsequent calls went
unanswered. (END)
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious freedom
survey at .
More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan is
at .
See also Norwegian Helsinki Committee/Forum 18 report on freedom of
religion or belief in Azerbaijan at:
A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
.
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
.
All Forum 18 News Service material may be referred to, quoted from, or
republished in full, if Forum 18 is credited as the
source.
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855.