conscript serving in the unrecognized Azerbaijani breakawayrepublic of Nagorno-Karabakh, who was reportedly beaten and jailed for sharing his faith in Christ with other soldiers.
The news service of human rights watchdog Forum 18 said Gagik Mirzoyan "was beaten and detained for more than ten days in early April" before being transferred to an unknown location. Mirzoyan "is being persecuted for preaching the Gospel and because they found several Christian calendars in his possession," his relatives and friends told Forum 18 News Service (F18News) after meeting him at the unit just before his transfer.
Relatives reportedly saw the "results of beatings" on his face. Military personnel allegedly promised them Mirzoyan would be freed the next day but apparently changed their mind and deported him from army barracks in Hadrut. He has been threatened with a two year prison sentence, F18News said.
NO COMMENT
Military officials have so far refused to comment on the case, news reports said. Human rights group Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM) Canada suggested in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest that the situation was serious. “Pray for safety and endurance in the face of persecution. Pray for his family, as they deal with their uncertainties and fears,” VOM Canada told supporters in a news letter.
It comes amid reports of growing persecution of active Protestant Christians across the former Soviet Union, where analysts say authoritarian regimes fear calls for more religious and political freedom.
In neighboring Russia, for instance, Bishop Siegfried Springer, who heads the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in European Russia, said Russian authorities cancelled his multi-entry visa and deported him from the country on April 11. "I want to return to Russia to our general synod to resume my pastoral work as soon as possible," he told F18News from the German town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf.
ABOUT CHURCH
"This is not about me, this is about our Church," he was quoted as saying. Bishop Springer, a German citizen, flew from Berlin to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on April 10, but on arrival that evening a border guard allegedly cancelled his visa with no explanation, stamping it four times with the word "annulled".
The one-year multi-entry visa had not been due to expire until next August, F18News claimed. He was reportedly held overnight in the airport holding centre, which he described as "not pleasant", before being deported to Germany the following day. The bishop told F18News that he has never criticized the Russian government. "I have always regarded Russian policy as good and recognize the improvements since Vladimir Putin became president. As a good Lutheran, I do not criticize the government where I live."
UNITED STATES CONCERNED
Speaking in a live interview with Ekho Moskvy radio Wednesday, April 20, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow democracy, which includes religious freedom, to flourish in the former Soviet Union and reduce his power.
Rice, a specialist on the former Soviet Union who interspersed her interview with a few phrases of Russian, couched her criticism in diplomatic tones, but singled out the powers that Putin had accumulated since taking over in 2000.
"All that we are saying is that for the U.S.-Russia relationship to really deepen and for Russia to gain its full potential there needs to be democratic development," Reuters news agency quoted her as telling the Moscow based radio station. "There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency, there needs to be an independent media … so that the Russian people can debate and decide together the democratic future of Russia," she said in reply to questions from the public sent in to the radio station via the Internet.
(With reports from Baku, Moscow, Bad Sooden-Allendorf and Stefan J. Bos)
