refusing to swear the military oath or wearing arms, has returned to his unit to serve the remaining time of his obligatory military service, Christian investigators said. In a statement monitored Friday, July 22, the Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) said Gagik Mirzoyan had been called to serve in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally considered part of Azerbaijan.
In April, VOMC and other human rights activists reported that Mirzoyan had been beaten and given ten days detention for sharing his He "was beaten and detained for more than ten days in early April" before being transferred to another location, said Forum 18, another human rights group earlier.
"RESULTS OF BEATINGS"
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. "Mirzoyan is now back with his military unit in the Hadrut district where he is under "special supervision," VOMC said.
"He is not under any particular pressure at this point. Historically, Baptists in much of the former Soviet Union are pacifists in doctrine, but this has not prevented believers such as Mirzoyan from being conscripted into military service," the group added.
It urged supporters to "pray that Mirzoyan will be free to practice his faith without further harassment" or punishment. Baptists have attributed his release from prison to international pressure.
MORE IN JAIL
However Forum 18 cautioned that two Jehovah’s Witnesses – Karabakh native Areg Hovhanesyan and Armenian citizen Armen Grigoryan, were sentenced in Nagorno-Karabakh this year for refusing military service on grounds of religious conscience and are still in jail.
Hovhanesyan is serving his four-year sentence in prison in the Karabakh town of Shushi, while Grigoryan has been returned to Armenia to serve his two year sentence, Forum 18 News Service reported. The US and other countries have in the past expressed concern about religious and political persecution in the country where Christians are estimated to comprise less than seven percent of the country’s nearly eight million population.
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic with a Turkic and majority-Muslim population, regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict with Armenia over the Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said. (With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Azerbaijan).
