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  • F18News: Religious conscientious objector forcibly taken to NK

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ================================================
    Thursday 6 January 2005
    ARMENIA: RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR FORCIBLY TAKEN TO
    NAGORNO-KARABAKH

    Armen Grigoryan, a religious conscientious objector who is seriously
    contemplating becoming a Jehovah's Witness, has been forcibly taken by the
    Armenian authorities from Armenia to a military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh,
    Forum 18 News Service has learnt. After he was beaten up, Grigoryan was
    forced to stand in his underwear in front of about 1,800 soldiers to tell
    them why he refused to do military service. "He told everyone present
    that his rejection was based on his religious beliefs and his study of the
    Bible," his father told Forum 18. This is the first instance known to
    Forum 18 of an Armenian religious conscientious objector being forcibly
    taken to a military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has repeatedly broken
    its promises to the Council of Europe on the treatment of conscientious
    objectors. Grigoryan has now escaped from the military and has written to
    the Armenian authorities from his hiding place, to say that he is prepared
    to do alternative civilian service.

    ARMENIA: RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR FORCIBLY TAKEN TO
    NAGORNO-KARABAKH

    By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

    An eighteen-year-old Armenian citizen, Armen Grigoryan - who is from a
    Jehovah's Witness family, has attended their meetings and is seriously
    contemplating baptism as a Jehovah's Witness - was summoned to the military
    recruitment office in the Armenian capital Yerevan under a pretext on 21
    June 2004. Within 24 hours and against his will he had been taken out of
    Armenia and transferred to a military unit across the border in
    Nagorno-Karabakh.

    On refusing to swear the military oath and sing the national anthem for
    religious reasons at the second regiment base in Martuni region of eastern
    Karabakh, his father Hovhanes Grigoryan told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 5
    January, Armen Grigoryan was beaten by Lieutenant Shakaryan (first name
    unknown) and Captain Hovhanes Danielyan. With the help of his father,
    Grigoryan wrote to several government departments and human rights
    organisations but "it worsened his situation".

    Lieutenant-General Vladik Khachatryan ordered that legal proceedings be
    instituted against Grigoryan. At the instigation of the prosecutor's
    assistant, he was stripped and forced to stand in his underwear in front of
    about 1,800 soldiers in the unit to tell them why he refused to do military
    service. "He told everyone present that his rejection was based on his
    religious beliefs and his study of the Bible," Hovhanes Grigoryan told
    Forum 18. "He explained that he had asked to be provided with civilian
    alternative service. Then he was offered military alternative service which
    he rejected."

    In the presence of the unit commander, Grigoryan again wrote an application
    for civilian alternative service to Armenia's ombudsperson, Larisa
    Alaverdyan. Alverdyan has in the past denied to Forum 18 that jailing
    Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors breaks Armenia's Council of
    Europe and OSCE commitments, and has blamed Jehovah's Witnesses for the
    problems they face from the Armenian government (see F18News 3 August 2004
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=384).

    After a month Armen Grigoryan was briefly hospitalised with gastritis, but
    after a visit from an official of the procuracy escaped from his military
    unit in Karabakh on 25 August and is now being hunted. His father, whose
    other son spent several years in prison in Armenia for refusing military
    service on grounds of religious conscience, told Forum 18 that Armen
    Grigoryan has written to the Armenian authorities from his hiding place to
    say he is prepared to do alternative civilian service.

    A Baptist young man from Nagorno-Karabakh, Gagik Mirzoyan, who also refused
    because of his faith to serve in the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces, was
    also beaten up, and is currently been held in an unknown location by the
    authorities. Relatives have been denied information about his location and
    acess to him, and Ministry would only tell Forum 18 that he "is still
    alive." (See F18News 6 January 2005
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=483).

    Nagorno-Karabakh's deputy foreign minister Masis Mailyan told Forum 18,
    from Stepanakert on 5 January, that the issue of why Grigoryan was forcibly
    transferred against his will from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh was an issue
    for the Armenian authorities. As for the maltreatment in the unit in
    Karabakh, Mailyan said he had no information.

    Armenia has promised the Council of Europe that it will introduce
    alternative civilian service and free religious prisoners of conscience
    imprisoned for conscientious objection, but has repeatedly broken these
    promises (see F18News 19 October 2004
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=434). Deputy foreign minister
    Mailyan insisted to Forum 18 that "laws on subjects that form part of
    Armenia's obligations under the Council of Europe also extend to the
    Nagorno-Karabakh Republic." Mailyan however, also claimed that the
    Karabakh armed forces are under local control, not under the control of
    Armenia (see F18News 6 January 2005
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=483).

    Nagorno-Karabakh has been under martial law since 1992, and imposes
    restrictions on civil liberties, including banning the activity of
    "religious sects and unregistered organisations", banning
    demonstrations and imposing media censorship. Officials claim that only
    "registered organisations" can hold meetings, and the only
    religious community to have registration is the Armenian Apostolic Church
    - effectively Karabakh's state church. Baptists have faced continued
    harassment from the authorities but although other communities -
    including Pentecostal Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses - have faced
    problems, pressures have generally eased in recent years.

    A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
    available at
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba
    within the map titled 'Azerbaijan'.

    A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Roo tmap=armeni
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/
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