Baptists talk with Azerbaijani leader about religious freedom

A delegation of Baptists met with the head of a government committee on religion in Azerbaijan in January.

The delegation — which included Tony Peck, Baptist World Alliance (BWA) regional secretary for Europe and general secretary of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), and Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World Aid — was primarily concerned about recent human rights abuses and restrictions on religious liberty in the South Caucasus country, which gained its independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The group highlighted the situation in the town of Aliabad, where two Baptist pastors, Zaur Balaev and Hamid Shabanov, were arrested and imprisoned on what were regarded as trumped up charges.

Balaev was released early from prison in March 2008, after being sentenced to two years in prison in August 2007. Shabanov’s case is still before the courts after his arrest June 20 of last year. He is under house arrest.

In their meeting with Hidayat Orujov, chairman of the State Committee of Azerbaijan Republic for the Work with Religious Associations, the Baptists urged that there be an end in discrimination against Christians by the state, such as the practice of refusing or delaying the granting of birth certificates to the children of Christian parents and firing Christians from their jobs upon their conversion to the faith.

The delegation also brought concerns about the difficulties the Baptist Union of Azerbaijan and its churches face in obtaining government registration. Even though the union and its churches have submitted all documents and met all requirements for registration, government officials have refused to complete the registration process.

Also part of the Baptist delegation were Christer Daelander, religious freedom representative with the EBF, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA; Parush Parushev, academic dean at International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic; and Ebbe Holm, an attorney at law.

There are 22 Baptist churches and 3,000 baptized believers in the country of 8.1 million people. (BWA)