The Armenian Apostolic Church on Friday expressed solidarity for Nagorno-Karabakh and urged its embattled residents to “remain firm” in the face of the continuing Azerbaijani blockade of the region’s land link with Armenia.
A Baku court has extended pre-trial imprisonment for Shia imam Sardar Babayev until April. The secret police arrested the former prisoner of conscience in October 2021 and is investigating him on criminal charges of treason. Six other arrested Shia preachers were freed and criminal cases dropped. "It s a question of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran," a commentator noted, but insists charges of treason are unfounded. "If someone has sympathy for Iran, does it make them an Iranian agent?" A Baku mosque police closed in October 2021 on alleged coronavirus grounds remains closed. A spokesperson said police close mosques, "but we do so when we get a request from the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations".
Despite another European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decision that Azerbaijan violated the human rights of two more conscientious objectors, Saadat Novruzova of the Presidential Administration s Human Rights Protection Unit told Forum 18 that changing the law to introduce a civilian alternative to compulsory military service "is not under discussion". Azerbaijan committed to the Council of Europe to introduce an alternative service by January 2003. The 7 October ECtHR decision reminded Azerbaijan of a similar earlier decision that "calls in principle for legislative action" to satisfy "the obligations incumbent on it of assuring .. the right to benefit from the right to conscientious objection".
28 April 2021
Felix Corley, Forum 18
Azerbaijan s military blocked Armenian pilgrims visiting Dadivank Monastery for Sunday worship on 25 April and the ordination of a priest. The monastery is in territory returned to Azerbaijani control after 2020 fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian peace keepers accompany pilgrims to Dadivank, but They too were surprised by the sudden denial of access, says Nagorno-Karabakh s Ombudsperson, Gegham Stepanyan. The ordination had to be moved to another monastery. Azerbaijan s Defence Ministry has not responded on why it blocked access to Dadivank.
On 25 April Azerbaijani military forces blocked Armenian Apostolic Church pilgrims access to the Dadivank Monastery. The Monastery is in territory now held by Azerbaijan, where the ordination of Deacon Manvel Sargsyan to the priesthood was due to take place that Sunday. Russian peace keepers accompanied the pilgrims to another monastery in the ethnic Armenian-controlled unrecognised entity of Nagorn