Sunni people are in danger in Azerbaijan

Religious intolerance in Azerbaijan worries local Sunni muslims

Mosque demolitions in Baku undermine tolerance claims and lead some to accuse the government of clinging onto the Soviet system of keeping a tight rein on believers, Leyla Amirova reports for IWPR.

Great banners across Baku’s streets celebrate the city’s role as “Islamic Culture Capital 2009”, but away from the gaze of visiting delegates, Azerbaijan’s authorities have taken a tough stance on Muslims who dare to worship without their permission.

On 11 May, Salman Aliev, a 50-year-old oil worker, said he was witness to the destruction of a mosque on the Oil Rocks, an offshore drilling settlement built on stilts and rock where 5,000 men work surrounded by the Caspian Sea.

“In the morning I heard this loud noise of machines from the direction of the mosque. When I got there, I saw how the wall of the mosque was being destroyed with a crane,” he said.

The mosque had been a well-built two-storey structure, with a minaret, a dome and air-conditioning but, while Aliev watched, the workers reduced it to a pile of rubble.

“They were not doing this because they wanted to. There was an order from the management, and so as to not lose their jobs they did this,” he said.

The armenian attorney is banned from defending Vahagn Chakhalian’s interests

On the eve, Vahagn Chakhalian’s protector of rights Stepan Voskanian visited Tbilisi to meet the activist. At the place of confinement, the police prevented Stepan Voskanian to meet the accused.

Vahagn Chakhalian is illegally deprived of freedom more than 7 months at Tbilisi #8 jail. The police officers told Stepan Voskanian that the latter’s license given on September 5, 2008, was not valid

“The license can be given once and consequently it does not lose its validity until the end of the trial. I am sure that all of these is specially planned, and aims at carrying on the lawsuit without the Armenian attorney. I think that Chakhalian will be sentenced illegally”, Vahagn Chakhalian’s protector of rights Stepan Voskanian told “Azg” daily.

In Respect of the Detention of the Armenian Public Activists of Georgia

On January 22, 2009 the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia detained Grigor Minasyan, the director of the Akhaltskha Armenian Youth Center of Samtskhe-Javakheti Region of Georgia and Sargis Hakobjanyan, the chairman of “Charles Aznavour” charitable organization. They were charged with “preparation of crime”, according to Article 18 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, and “formation or leading of a paramilitary unit” (Part 1 of Article 223) and “espionage” (Part 1 of Article 314).

The «Yerkir» Union considers these arrests as a deliberate provocation by the Georgian authorities, aimed at deterioration of the situation in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and worsening the Armenian-Georgian relations in order to achieve the following objectives:

1.    To distract the gradually increasing attention of the international community from the trial of the Javakheti Armenian political activist Vahagn Chakhalyan, during which the leader of the «United Javakhk» and its advocates raise the concerns and problems of the Javakheti Armenians, and demand their solution, which impels the Georgian authorities to commit new and apparent violations and iniquities at the court proceedings. 

2.    By putting up the playing card of the «Armenian separatism» before the international community, to avoid complying with its international obligations on the protection of the rights of the national minorities, including the Armenian minority.

3.    By putting up the same «Armenian separatism» card, to push the Armenian authorities to new compromises when it comes to solution of the problems of the Armenians of Javakheti and Georgia.

Therefore, the «Yerkir» Union appeals to the international community, urging them to take immediate measures in order to halt the deepening crisis and to address the socio-economic, linguistic, educational and religious problems of the Armenian minority of Georgia.

The international community has an obligation to send a clear message to the Georgian authorities, emphasizing that they have no alternative to the solving the problems of the ethnic minorities living in the country. Only a democratic Georgia, respecting its ethnic diversity, can avoid further disruption and guarantee the sustainable development of the country.

January 23, 2009

Please spread.Declaration of the Georgian Peace Committee

 Once more Georgia was launched into a situation of chaos and bloodshed. A new fratricidal war exploded with renewed strength on Georgian soil. To our great disappointment, the alerts of the Georgian Peace Committee and of progressive personalities of Georgia on the pernicious character of the militarization of the country and on the danger of a pro-fascist and nationalist policy had no effect.

Armenia.1-st of March 2008.Update from police.

The only issue included in the agenda of yesterday’s session of the interim parliamentary committee investigating the March 1-2 events and their causes concerned the disclosure of the details and circumstances of the incident that took place on the Theatrical Square in the morning of March 1 and the clarification of the operations of the police officers. To this end, Major-General ALEXANDER AFYAN, Deputy Chief of the Police, was invited to the committee session.

Novruzali Mammadov.I am brought to trial for my ethnicity, for my being a Talysh

 

68-year-old linguist Novruzali Mammadov, Deputy President of the Talysh Cultural Center, Editor-in-Chief of the Talysh-language newspaper Tolyshi Sado (Voice of the Talysh), and Head of a Department at the Philology Institute of the Academy of Science of Azerbaijan, was charged with high treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison in Baku, Azerbaijan. Charges were also pressed against the paper’s administrator Elman Guliyev who was sentenced to 6 years. Initially, the prosecutor sought 12 and 8-year sentences for the two individuals.