Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations has taken steps to close the Greater Grace Church in the capital Baku. The reason given for the closure is that the church has failed to undergo compulsory re-registration, Forum 18 reports. This is the fifth time the country's religious communities have been forced to re-register, each time after new and stricter rules have been introduced to increase state control over religious communities.
This new move is believed to be the first attempt by the authorities to forcibly close down a religious community through the courts after forced re-registration was imposed under the strict Religion Law of 2009. If the authorities get their way, the church will lose its legal right to exist. Unregistered exercise of freedom of religion or belief is illegal under the Religion Law, which violates international human rights standards. Church members reject the state's lawsuit on the grounds that "illegal liquidation" of its legal status, which the church has had since 1993, would be an infringement of its members' "constitutional rights to freedom of religion". "The trial will begin properly on March 15 at 4pm," Judge Tahira Asadova told Forum 18.
The head of the Baptist Union of Azerbaijan, Ilya Zenchenko, who a few years ago was helped by the Danish European Mission to provide legal representation for two Baptist pastors who were imprisoned for their Christian activities but on false charges, supports the Greater Grace Church and also calls the authorities' move illegal and unconstitutional and it "brings Azerbaijan into international disrepute." The plans to close the church, he says, "penalizes people who want to live honestly. The State Committee, which has a duty to help religious believers, is oppressing them instead," said Zenchenko, who announced that he and other Protestant pastors will be present in court to show solidarity. He called on the country's president, Ilham Aliev, and the Organization for Peace and Security in Europe (OSCE) not to ignore the church's situation.
Henrik Ertner Rasmussen, Secretary General of the Danish European Mission, says: "We have worked with the Greater Grace Church almost since its inception and it is quite a shock for us to hear that it is suddenly threatened with closure, especially as it has been very well established and has operated in full public with well-attended services in the historic Lutheran church building in the central city neighborhood that emerged during the great oil boom in the area around 1900. In addition to services, Greater Grace Church has been active in social programs to benefit the disabled and other vulnerable groups in the community.
The International Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Baku in two months. Will the Azerbaijani government use this media event, with all the hype surrounding it, to hide the widespread lack of freedom of expression in the country, a lack that affects the press, political life and religious communities? - Will the media just see the glittering surface and forget the repression of the country's regime? - The Russian group of grandmothers who will represent Russia in the competition will use the money they earn from their performance to fund the construction of a church. I wonder if this will be reported locally in Azerbaijan, or will it be covered up?"
