Jehovah's Witnesses News

For Immediate Release
May 12, 2010

AGSTAFA, Azerbaijan—Three women were fined 200 AZN ($250 US) each for distributing educational religious literature in the City of Agstafa, in the west of Azerbaijan. When the women later explained to a presiding judge that they are allowed to express their religious convictions under the European Convention on Human Rights, he informed them the Convention did not apply. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Religious communities punished for meeting for worship in Azerbiajan, or who have had religious literature confiscated, continue to formally appeal against these human rights violations, they have told Forum 18 News Service. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim readers of the works of Said Nursi have demanded the return of confiscated literature. But despite repeated appeals over more than 15 years – most recently in early 2010 – for the Baptist church in Aliabad to be registered, its application has still not been granted. Police visited its pastor in late April, to warn him not to gather church members for worship or they would face unspecified “unpleasantness with the law”. Violations of freedom of religion or belief in Azerbaijan have been occasionally successfully challenged, but the only example in 2010 known to Forum 18 is an appeal against a fine imposed on one Muslim reader of Nursi’s works. Despite many such protests not being successful, for example to re-open mosques and churches, one Muslim insisted to Forum 18 that publicly challenging violations is crucial to defend religious freedom. Read the rest of this entry »

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Armenian Apostolic Church leader Catholicos Garegin II (L), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (C) and Azerbaijan's Shia Muslim leader Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade attend a summit of world religious leaders in Baku. AP photo

BAKU – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church arrived in Baku Monday in his first-ever trip to Azerbaijan, joining a gathering billed as a summit of some 200 religious leaders from around the world, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Armenian and Azerbaijani services reported.

Catholicos Garegin II was invited by Azerbaijan’s longtime Shi’a Muslim leader, Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, and Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill.

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While Aliyev touts Baku’s credentials as a center for interfaith dialogue, however, various human rights organizations – as well as a March report from the U.S. State Department – have raised concerns about religious freedom in Azerbaijan. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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