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Governmental respect for religious freedom continued to deteriorate in Azerbaijan in 2014, along with a sharp decline in respect for democratic norms. The past year witnessed a marked increase in arrests of civil society activists and members of religious groups. In addition, the government continued to levy penalties for violations of the restrictive 2009 religion law, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) states in its annual report on religious freedom in the world.

It is noted in the section devoted to Azerbaijan that registration requests from religious groups were delayed or denied and religious groups closed. Peaceful religious believers, their defenders, and other activists have been detained, fined, and imprisoned on various charges. Based on these concerns, in 2015 USCIRF again places Azerbaijan on Tier 2, where it has been since 2013. According to the State Department, 96 % of Azerbaijan’s population is Muslim, of whom about 65% are Shia Muslims and 35% Sunni Muslims. The remaining 4% of the population includes: Russian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and other Christians (including Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Molokans, and Seventh-day Adventists); some 20,000 Jews; Baha’is; and nonbelievers. 

The Azerbaijani government is viewed as corrupt and increasingly authoritarian. During the reporting period, there was a marked increase in arrests and repression of civil society activists and peaceful members of religious groups in Azerbaijan. In 2014, the parliament also increased reporting requirements for NGOs and religious groups to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations (SCWRO), purportedly to prevent the spread of religious extremism and foreign missionary activity.

It is noted that the law’s provisions include: compulsory state registration with complex and intrusive requirements; no appeal for registration denials; religious activities limited to a community’s registered address; extensive state controls on the content, production, import, export, and dissemination of religious materials; and required state-approved religious education to preach, teach religion, or lead ceremonies. Individuals or groups violating the religion law are subject to administrative fines. In 2010, fines for religious organizations increased 16-fold.

In 2012, the CoE’s Venice Commission and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a legal opinion finding that Azerbaijan’s religion law failed to meet its international human rights commitments. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Azerbaijan’s religion law gives authorities “unlimited discretionary power” to define and prosecute “illegal” religious activity. In October 2014, an Azerbaijani NGO, Islam-Ittihad Association, won a case at the ECtHR challenging its 2003 dissolution. The ECtHR found that the government had violated the Association’s rights to freedom of assembly and association by closing it down for organizing Muslim pilgrimages and criticizing the statebacked Caucasian Muslim Board (CMB). In November 2014, Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Baku’s Fatima Zahra Sunni mosque against state-enforced legal liquidation, the report states. 

According to the report, the Azerbaijani NGO Legal Protection and Awareness Society Public Union (LPASPU) has compiled a list of Muslims jailed for the non-violent practice of their faith or advocacy for religious freedom. Most were sentenced for publicly protesting what is in effect a ban on headscarves in school: 11 members of that group are still imprisoned, seven were released in 2014; two were pardoned by President Aliyev in March 2015. November 2014, nine Sunni Muslims arriving to pray in a Sumgait home were detained for several hours; police claimed to have found weapons. In February 2015, a Baku court sentenced the home’s owner, Zohrab Shikhaliyev (who offered his home for prayer because all local Sunni mosques were closed) to a six-month term on false weapons charges. Islamic theologian Taleh Bagirov, who publicly criticized the naming of a CMB imam to serve in his mosque, was sentenced in 2013 on fabricated drug charges and released in late 2014. The trial of three Muslims – Eldeniz Hajiyev, Ismayil Mammadov and Revan Sabzaliyev – for allegedly reading “illegal” religious literature and organizing an “illegal” religious group began in Baku in December 2014. If convicted, they face three to five year prison terms.

It is noted that all Muslim religious leaders are named by the state-backed CMB and must be citizens educated in Azerbaijan; all mosques must belong to the CMB; and only citizens can establish Islamic religious communities. By 2014, all Islamic communities that did not belong to the CMB lacked legal status and were vulnerable to police action. 

Police put bans on prayer outside of mosques. In 2010, the Ministry of Education introduced a school uniform, in effect banning the Islamic headscarf. In 2013 that ban was extended to universities, leading to petitions and unauthorized protests. In 2014 the government and the CMB stepped up its apparent campaign to close Sunni places of worship. The Lezgin Mosque – one of two Sunni Muslim mosques open in Baku – was threatened with closure. 

As the report further states, when Azerbaijan joined the CoE in 2001 it promised to allow alternative service, but has yet to enact such a law. Government Censorship of Religious Materials Penalties for first-time violators of official restrictions and censorship of religious texts include up to two years in jail. A “conspiratorial” or organized group or a repeat offender faces a prison term of between two and five years; in February 2015, a Baku court ordered Jehovah’s Witnesses Irina Zakharchenko and Valida Jabrayilova to be held for three months in a secret police investigation. They face up to a five-year term for offering religious literature without state permission. 

Situation in the Nakhichevan Exclave Residents of the Nakhichevan exclave face more severe religious freedom restrictions than elsewhere in Azerbaijan. Local Sunni Muslims have nowhere to pray. In November 2014, up to 200 Shia Muslims were arrested; according to Forum 18 News Service, up to 50 are detained and up to 50 mosques – particularly those officially seen as close to Iran – reportedly were closed, the report reads.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent US government advisory body created by Congress. The Commission monitors the freedom of religion in the world and makes policy recommendations for the President, Secretary of State and Congress. Annual Report 2015 is the result of the work of the committee members and its professional staff throughout the year on the documentation of violations in the field and provides independent policy recommendations to the US government.