Christianity in Azerbaijan

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The Christianity in Azerbaijan a minority religion. Azerbaijan is ranked 45th out of 50 countries most persecuted by Christians on the Open Doors World Persecution Index 2018 .

Denominations

In 1998, 3.8% of the population was Russian Orthodox . There is a Russian Orthodox eparchy in Azerbaijan. There is also the Orthodox minority of the 8,000 or so Udines , the majority in Nic . Around 3,000 Udines from Wartaschen, renamed Oğuz in 1991 , who belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church, were expelled to Armenia in 1991, so that only around 50 Udine remained there. Udinen are considered to be descendants of the ancient, Christian-influenced Caucasian Albania , the predecessor state of Azerbaijan. The independent Albanian Patriarchate was abolished by decree of the Russian Tsar in 1836 and placed under the Armenian Apostolic Church in Echmiadzin . On April 10, 2003, the “ Albanian-Udinese Christian Community ” was officially registered . This date is known as the rebirth of the Albanian Church in Azerbaijan. According to information from 2014, the Udin community already has 10,000 members. There are also 11 Christian Molokan communities .

By 1988, the Christians formed the largest Christian minority in the country among the 475,500 Armenians in Azerbaijan in 1979, the majority of whom belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church . Today these Armenian Christians either live in the de facto independent Republic of Arzach ( Nagorno-Karabakh ) - but here to over 99% of the population - or were expelled from their homeland during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . In the Republic of Artsakh there are at least ten, well to less well preserved Armenian Apostolic Churches . In addition, in the historical area of ​​Nagorno-Karabakh there are countless khachkars , the typical stelae of the Armenian stonemasonry. In the de facto national territory of Azerbaijan, however, there is no longer any Armenian church used as such; most of the Armenian church buildings and khachkars as well as the Armenian cemetery of Culfa were demolished after 1992. The Church of Gregory the Illuminator , built in 1887 and located in the center of Baku, was thoroughly restored in 2004 after being badly damaged in the late 1980s. The Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, Garegin II, also attended the World Summit of Religious Dignitaries in Baku in April 2010 . It was the first visit by an Armenian religious leader to Azerbaijan since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out in the late 1980s. On the sidelines of his trip, Garegin II visited the Church of Gregory the Illuminator and met with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Allahşükür Paşazade .

It is estimated that there are fewer than 7,000 Protestants . Since 1993 there has been an Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Baku again, to which descendants of the German minority (between 1000 and 2000) belong. Pastoral care turns out to be complicated; In 1999 Pastor Günther Oborski was expelled.

In addition, Jehovah's Witnesses have 8 congregations there with 1,196 members.

The Roman Catholic Church in Azerbaijan is very small, there is only one Roman Catholic parish with around 390 members. In May 2002 Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Azerbaijan. The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in 2007. The old church was destroyed by the communists in 1931 and the then pastor Stefan Demurow was killed together with other believers. In August 2011, the parish in Baku , which previously belonged to the Tbilisi diocese , was unanimously accredited as the “ Apostolic Prefecture of the Catholic Church”. The prefecture is headed by Father Vladimir Fekete , who originally comes from Slovakia .

Legal situation

The Azerbaijani constitution formally grants religious freedom to all religious communities. However, all religious communities must register. Unregistered Christian communities are therefore illegal.

Making, importing, or selling Bibles without express government approval is a criminal offense. Often the activities of the Christian communities are monitored and controlled by the state committee for religious affairs or the secret police .

In May 2009, a new law on religion and related amendments to the administrative and criminal law came into force in Azerbaijan . Religious communities that did not register by January 2010 were no longer accepted. Christian communities feared that they would lose their legal status if they refused to register. Since January 2010 no new parish has received a registration. At the end of April 2012, a court in Baku dissolved the Protestant Greater Grace Church due to the lack of new registration .

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  1. ↑ Azerbaijan. Retrieved January 15, 2018 .
  2. ^ Wolfgang Schulze: Towards a History of Udi. International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics 1, 2005, pp. 55-91.
  3. ↑ a b Eva-Maria Also: Azerbaijan - a country of religious diversity . In: East-West. European Perspectives (OWEP). Vol. 4 (2003), No. 4, pp. 269-278 ( online , accessed on March 18, 2020).
  4. ↑ LIPortal - the country information portal Society & Culture. Accessed February 3, 2018 (German).
  5. ↑ Azerbaijan: The Status of Armenians, Russians, Jews and other minorities. (PDF; 96 kB) Immigration and Naturalization Service ; Washington, DC, 1993, p. 10 , accessed January 25, 2013 : “Despite the constitutional guarantees against religious discrimination, numerous acts of vandalism against the Armenian Apostolic Church have been reported throughout Azerbaijan. These acts are clearly connected to anti-Armenian sentiments brought to the surface by the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. "
  6. ^ Garegin Meets Aliyev, Visits Armenian Church In Baku. Retrieved February 5, 2018 (Armenian).
  7. ↑ Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses 2014, p. 178
  8. ^ Adherents.com
  9. ^ Azerbaijan Interview with priests in Baku. Retrieved January 15, 2018 (German).
  10. ↑ Persecution of Christians in Azerbaijan ( Memento from December 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Country profile Azerbaijan
  12. ↑ Willy Fautré: The Greater Grace Church deprived of the use of the Lutheran Church in Baku , accessed on March 18, 2020.