Azerbaijan: Stalled Book Import & Religious Censorship

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Azerbaijan: Stalled Book Import & Religious Censorship

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 3, 2003 ⋅ Post a comment

KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________

KESTON NEWS SERVICE, 20.00, 26 September 2002. Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________

I. AZERBAIJAN: THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR STALLED BOOK IMPORT? The Baptist church in the capital Baku is hoping its third application to import 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs will be successful, but the State Committee in charge of compulsory censorship of all religious literature (see separate KNS article) – has only given permission for 500 copies to be released. It has not explained why the State Committee should decide how many copies of any publication a religious community needed. Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, said the Baptists could only speculate as to why the committee had restricted the quantity. “Maybe they don’t want it to be in Azerbaijan,” he declared. “It’s a very beautiful book with nice illustrations. Solomon is very popular in Islam and is respected as a prophet. Maybe they’re afraid we’ll give out the book to people.”

II. AZERBAIJAN: OFFICIAL OUTLINES RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP PROCEDURE. The head of the “expertise” department of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has told Keston News Service that his department checks between 20 and 30 religious books, magazines and tapes every week before authorising their publication or import, but insists that “This is not censorship. We just give our expert conclusion as to whether each publication is OK or not.” Department officials check religious publications brought in for approval by religious communities, copies of religious books and magazines confiscated from travellers entering Azerbaijan and religious publications sent to them by customs when they open all parcels of books entering the country by post.

I. AZERBAIJAN: THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR STALLED BOOK IMPORT?

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

The Baptist church in the capital Baku is hoping its third application to be allowed to import 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs will be successful. Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, told Keston News Service from Baku on 26 September that so far the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations – which is in charge of the compulsory prior censorship of all religious literature produced in Azerbaijan or imported into the country (see separate KNS article) – has so far given permission for only 500 copies to be released. “If they were given permission to import a certain quantity, the Committee believes that’s enough for them,” Mirzabala Amirakhov, the head of the department that deals with Christian groups at the State Committee, told Keston from Baku on 26 September. He failed to explain why it was in the power of the State Committee to decide how many copies of any publication an individual religious community needed.

The registered Baku Baptist church applied to the State Committee in May to import the copies of the Azerbaijani-language translation of the Book of Proverbs, entitled “The Wisdom of Solomon”, which had been produced and donated to it by the Bible Society of Kazakhstan. Zenchenko reported that with his application he had provided a copy of the work for the State Committee to assess in reaching its decision. He reported that it was not until 23 July that State Committee chairman Rafik Aliev wrote back to say that permission was being granted for only 500 copies and that the remaining copies would have to be sent back to Kazakhstan at the church’s expense. “He failed to explain why this limit had been set,” Zenchenko complained. “Besides, it took him two months to respond to our application.”

Dissatisfied with this response, the Baptist church again applied for permission to import the full 3,000 copies, which by then were awaiting clearance in customs in Baku. Aliev wrote again on 16 September declaring once again that only 500 copies would be released. Zenchenko said Aliev again failed to give any reason for the decision. He had therefore written a third application letter on 25 September seeking the release of all the copies.

Jeyhun Mamedov, head of the “expertise” department of the State Committee that assesses all religious literature before it is authorised for publication or import, said that his department had examined the Wisdom of Solomon and approved it for import. “The book is OK,” he told Keston from Baku on 26 September. “There is nothing harmful in it.” He said he was unable to say why Aliev had decided that only 500 copies could be imported. “Our department doesn’t specify the number of copies of a book that may be produced or imported,” he explained. “We just say if it is OK or not.”

In a written answer of 26 February to Keston’s questions about religious censorship (see KNS 15 March 2002), Aliev had claimed: “Permission to import holy books, such as the Koran, Bible and Torah, is not required.” Given that the Wisdom of Solomon is a text in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, it remains unclear whether Aliev has now changed his mind. Keston was unable to reach Aliev or his deputy Namik Allahverdiev by telephone on 26 September, being told they were both out at a conference.

Mamedov blamed the quantity of religious publications that the Committee needed to assess for the two-month delay in responding to the Baptists’ May application. “We have a lot of work. We couldn’t have responded quicker.” Amirakhov too was unable to say why two months had been required for the response.

Zenchenko said the Baptists could only speculate as to why Aliev’s committee had approved the import of the book, but restricted the quantity. “Maybe they don’t want it to be in Azerbaijan,” he declared. “It’s a very beautiful book with nice illustrations. Solomon is very popular in Islam and is respected as a prophet. Maybe they’re afraid we’ll give out the book to people.”

Zenchenko told Keston that he intends to raise the issue with the Baku office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to which Azerbaijan belongs and which commits member countries to democratic values and respect for human rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of expression. He added that if the church does not get permission to import the books, it will seek to resolve the issue through the courts.

At the same time, Zenchenko had no complaints about the customs which are holding the books. “They have acted according to the procedure.”

Customs often confiscate religious literature from people entering Azerbaijan or shipments of literature sent to religious communities in the country. Christian literature in Azerbaijani, the country’s official language, is often targeted for confiscation. (END)

II. AZERBAIJAN: OFFICIAL OUTLINES RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP PROCEDURE

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

The head of the “expertise” department of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has told Keston News Service that his department checks between 20 and 30 religious books, magazines and tapes every week before authorising their publication or import. Jeyhun Mamedov revealed that the five officials in his department check religious publications brought in for approval by religious communities, copies of religious books and magazines confiscated from travellers entering Azerbaijan and religious publications sent to them by customs when they open all parcels of books entering the country by post. “This is not censorship,” he insisted to Keston by telephone from Baku on 26 September. “We just give our expert conclusion as to whether each publication is OK or not.” He stressed that books they have banned have come from Iran or Arab countries.

Mamedov declared that the procedure for this compulsory censorship was set out in the State Committee’s statute. He explained that his department has certain criteria for deeming a book unacceptable. “We are looking for material that declares that one religion is better than others, for example, or if it would cause problems � for our state, that is.” Asked whether all religions did not believe that their faith was more truthful than others, Mamedov declined to respond.

Asked how this prior compulsory censorship accords with Azerbaijan’s commitments to freedom of expression and freedom of religion under international human rights documents and as a member of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Mamedov was not able to answer, referring all such enquiries to Namik Allahverdiev, the assistant to Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee. Both Allahverdiev and Aliev were unavailable by telephone on 26 September. Keston was told they were both out at a conference. Mamedov’s colleague Mirzabala Amirakhov, who heads the department at the committee that deals with Christian groups, likewise could not explain how the censorship accorded with Azerbaijan’s commitments, but believed it was right. “There is a reason for the system.”

Speaking to Keston in Baku earlier this year, some religious leaders ridiculed the censorship procedure, in particular questioning how the State Committee could check material in languages such as Hebrew or German (see KNS 15 March 2002). “We have specialists who know Russian, Arabic, English and German,” Mamedov reported, but admitted: “We don’t have people for other languages.”

Mamedov explained that travellers entering the country with quantities of religious literature would have that literature removed by customs and would get it back only after it has been approved by the State Committee. “This does not apply if an individual is only in transit.”

Asked what the customs do when a parcel of books or magazines arrives in Azerbaijan by post addressed to a local addressee, Mamedov explained: “Customs open the parcel. If they are books about religion, they send them to us to be checked.” Asked whether such censorship applies to books on, say, economics, he responded: “No, they just send them on to the addressee.” Asked how many books a parcel can contain before the contents are sent for evaluation by his department, Mamedov reported: “If it’s one copy, they wouldn’t send it to us, but if it is a lot they would.” He added that video and cassette tapes of religious content are likewise subject to evaluation. He said his committee had fifteen days to give its conclusion about whether a publication was acceptable or not.

Mamedov revealed that his department is now drawing up a list of banned publications which, he said, would be published “in the next two weeks or a month” on the State Committee’s website and in its magazine in Azerbaijani and in Russian. “There are 20 to 25 titles already on the list,” he declared. “Not from Western countries,” he quickly added, “from Iran.” (END)

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