at least one was beaten and threatened with mind-altering drugs and threats against his wife, human rights watchers said Friday, October 24.
The Forum 18 News Service (F18News) of the religious rights organization Forum 18 quoted Baptists in Stepanakert, the capital of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan, as saying that their church member Tigran Nazaretyan was suffering.
Nazaretyan was "beaten up and threatened" and "the church’s literature was being confiscated," from him and his congregation late last month, F18News reported quoting the Baptists.
"At the (police) station he was asked what he was doing in Stepanakert and who was financing his activity," F18News said about the incidents on Sunday, September 28.
DRUGS
"As he apparently did not answer these questions, police " threatened him with imprisonment in the punishment isolation cell, the use of psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs," while saying "that his wife would suffer," the news service added.
"Several times the police officer hit Nazaretyan on his face and head, but as Nazaretyan still did not answer he was released," F18News, which investigates religious persecution, learned from the Baptists.
"While Nazaretyan was being interrogated, other police officers arrived at the church. After waiting for the end of the Sunday service (they) confiscated all the literature they could find," F18News said.
NO WARRANT
"The Baptists report that the police did not present any search warrant from the procurator and left no official record of the books they had confiscated. The have appealed for the literature to be returned."
The incidents happened after two men in civilian clothes approached Nazaretyan and took away several religious tracts and literature from the Baptist supported street library, in an apparent sign that his activities were closely monitored by local authorities.
Soon after "Senior Lieutenant Garri Mirzoyan" arrived describing the literature as "banned" and "sectarian", invoking the ban on agitating among the people during martial law and warning Nazaretyan of the consequences of disobedience.
MARTIAL LAW
The martial law has existed since 1992 when bitter conflict was raging between the local Armenian population and the Azerbaijani government.
Although Nazaretyan initially received back his publications and initially could leave the station, police soon reportedly picked him up again while on his way to the Baptist church after which the alleged beatings happened, a method used during Communism.
Government leaders have not yet responded to the allegations, however officials assert that there was no pressure on Nazaretyan or threat to use psychotropic drugs," Karen Ohandjanyan, head of the Stepakanert human rights group Helsinki-92, told F18 News.
NOT REGISTERED
The Stepanakert Baptist congregation belongs to the International Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, which rejects registration on principle in all the post-Soviet republics where it operates.
In February 2002 police reportedly raided Baptist meetings in Stepanakert, confiscated books and deported 24-year-old Arsen Teimurov, who had returned to his native Karabakh, after becoming a Baptist whilst in prison in Ukraine.
Pentecostals, Adventists, Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses all faced restrictions on their activity in the 1990s, while the Armenian Apostolic Church became the de facto state religion, F18News said.
PROTESTANTS RESTRICTED
A member of another Protestant church, who preferred not to be identified, was quoted as saying that their small community in Stepanakert can meet for worship, but only as long as it keeps a low profile
The presidential decree imposing martial law – renewed annually by the parliament in Stepanakert – imposes restrictions on civil liberties such as banning the activity of "religious sects and unregistered organizations," protests. and forces media censorship.
Forum 18 says authorities claim these harsh provisions have not been enforced since 1995, a year after a cease-fire ended the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over who controls Nagorno-Karabakh following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However "As the law on martial law is still in force banning all kinds of activity and gatherings," said Ohandjanyan of Helsinki 92, "on the basis of this the authorities can detain anyone violating the law."
