Officials in Azerbaijan refuse to register a Protestant church in the city of Sumgait, according to rights group Forum 18.
Peace Church, located north of Baku, submitted a registration application in April to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. The church told Forum 18 that state officials refuse to respond to the application, leaving the Christian fellowship in legal limbo.
“Approximately 50 members of our church community came together to prepare and submit all the necessary documents required for official recognition and permission to assemble” in April, the church’s leader, identified only as Pastor Shahin, told Forum 18. “We ensured that all the paperwork was complete and submitted it to the State Committee without delay.”
The church reportedly followed official legal procedures for registration. Officials summoned Pastor Shahin to the State Committee’s regional office in Sumgait on July 7 and told him the church was not allowed to gather as a religious community without official permission, Forum 18 reported.
“When officials asked him about the number of members of the church, and the pastor said that there were 70-80 members in the church, they became very angry with him,” sources told Forum 18.
Officials accused the pastor of “holding secret meetings and gathering people,” which Pastor Shahin denied.
“We always hold our meetings openly and transparently,” he told them, further noting that the State Committee often invites him to various public events. “When foreign guests came, you asked me to wear the medals I received for participating in the first Karabakh war and attend the event. You gathered us, that is, the Azerbaijani pastors, and took us to an event in Karabakh, in Shusha. And now you are telling me that I held secret meetings?”
Forum 18 reported that the State Committee officials found no fault in the church’s registration application.
“They simply told us that we cannot hold any more meetings, and that we are forbidden to hold any religious ceremony without registration,” a source told Forum 18.
A state official told the church, “If you do not heed this warning and hold a religious ceremony, we will punish you,” the group reported.
Church leaders remain uncertain whether the State Committee found any legal or procedural flaws in the application.
“So, we do not know whether our documents are in order,” a source told Forum 18. “It seems that the State Committee has not even checked our documents. Officials restrict us from exercising our constitutional right to worship peacefully and to practice our faith. The lack of clarity and the indefinite waiting period put excessive pressure on our church and potentially violate our rights.”
Forum 18 telephoned the branch of the State Committee in Sumgait on Sept. 18, but no one answered the call.
Registration problems that the Sumgait church suffers are part of a wider problem in the country. Forum 18 reported that the State Committee no longer registers any churches.
“There are churches that have been waiting for registration in the State Committee for years,” a source told Forum 18. “Most likely, what happened to us will happen to them too.”
Sumgait’s Peace Church is among at least five Protestant churches that have filed registration applications with the State Committee, attorney and human rights advocate Murad Aliyev told Forum 18.
“Some of them have been waiting for more than two years,” Aliyev said.
One of these churches tried to register in 2023. State Committee officials seemingly responded positively the next year, but they did not follow with registration.
“They say nothing,” a community member told Forum 18. “It is so sad.”
The State Committee usually leaves applications from communities it does not like with no formal response, neither accepting nor rejecting applications, the rights group noted.
“This makes it difficult for such communities to challenge this in court, as they have no response to challenge,” Aliyev told the watchdog.
Forum 18 wrote to the State Committee in Baku on Sept. 18 asking why it fails to accept or reject registration applications, particularly from non-Muslim organizations. It also asked “why, out of the many non-Muslim communities that have applied for state registration, officials have accepted only one since 2020.”
State officials had not replied at the time of publication (Sept. 19), according to Forum 18.
The Aliabad Baptist community in the northern town of Aliabad tried to register a church for 25 years. Forum 18 stated that police repeatedly raided the community and jailed two church pastors.
In February 2009, officials gave the Rev. Hamid Shabanov, a former prisoner of conscience, a two-year suspended jail sentence on fabricated charges, Forum 18 previously reported.
A month before Pastor Shabanov’s arrest, authorities released another pastor, the Rev. Zaur Balaev, who had endured a year in prison on false charges, Forum 18 reported. The State Committee in Baku gave limited approval for Pastor Shabanov’s Baptist church to meet for worship from January 2020. It said it had “no objection” to the church holding worship meetings for two hours each Saturday morning.
The State Committee’s website noted that the Baku community of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only non-Muslim community officials registered since December 2020. Forum 18 noted this registration for the Mormon group on July 10, 2024.
