In Kabardino-Balkaria, a 69-year-old tailor is being tried for "a crime against the security of the state"

[Guest Kurt]

The bonds of love

"Rafik jan", - a man with frowning eyebrows, who worked all his life as a car mechanic, appears - and pulls into the house. He passes through a courtyard covered with grapevines, through a garage with a red "nine", and places him at the table with a worn carpet behind him and a wooden bench. Birds cackle behind the partition. Rafik throws a grain at them and says with admiration: "Look at what Jehovah created them!" A squatter takes a seed in its beak and hands it over to the chickens. You do not have time to look back, as before you there is a cup of coffee in the east and a three-tiered vase on a leg with homemade baklava and other liveries. The hostess of the house - Kinaward - is a brisk, squat green-eyed Armenian ("Relatives, when they came to the maternity home, first asked what color the eyes of the child, and then, how are my affairs"), puts a chair to get from the top shelf of the furniture wall the most Elegant plates. On the door of the cabinet hangs a "personal study schedule", carefully nested in a transparent file. The first point: the daily reading of the Bible - 20 minutes.

Cool - the second largest city in Kabardino-Balkaria, grew out of the Cossack village. On the streets blossom mulberry, apricot and cherry trees, tea roses, of which local make jam. Almost 80% of the population is Russian. There is no mosque, but there are several Orthodox churches, the house of prayer of the Seventh-day Christian Adventist Church, the Catholic parish, the prayer house of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church and the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

On the federal agenda, Cool came a few months ago when the criminal case against the chairman of the local religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" Arkady Hakobyan was opened. For the family of Rafik, the defendant is not only a fellow-believer. After the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, they, dragged by the mountains, moved to Kabardino-Balkaria and settled in Prokhladny as refugees. And when they met each other, it turned out that they lived in neighboring villages. And made friends.

 Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Cool Kabardino-Balkaria. Soon it may become the property of the state.

The long table is quickly filled with food. From edge to edge. In the center - hashlama, along the edges of lavash, huge plates with greens ("what a sandwich without greens?") And homemade cheese, string beans, mixed with eggs - in Armenian. All the dishes Kinovard prepared with their own hands, food - tore in the garden. Before the meal, the witnesses lower their heads and thank the Creator for the food they provided. All together repeat: "Amen."

They speak among themselves the Karabakh dialect of the Armenian language, switching now and then to Russian. Arkady, in an old-fashioned gray suit with stripes, a blue shirt and a tie, hardly talks at the table. Spins in the hands of a button Nokia. He looks into the distance and as if deep inside himself.

Rafik recalls that he once went to his son in the Smolensk region, he was there "alternative service" - Witnesses against war and weapons, strictly adhere to the commandment "do not kill", so instead of one year they serve a year and nine months, but in civil organizations: houses Elderly people, colonies, psycho-dispensaries (in fascist Germany for unwillingness to serve in the army, Hitler sent their co-religionists to the concentration camp).

Rafik then asked one of the representatives of the community of "Jehovah's Witnesses" to help them navigate the terrain. The train arrived at three o'clock in the morning. "An Armenian was traveling with us. I told him that the first time in the city, I do not know what or how, but he did not react to it at all. And then I saw the witness of Jehovah standing outside the window who turned to him and said to my son: "Abraham, look out the window, this is our brother." We did not know him until this day, but he called us to his house, covered the table at four o'clock in the morning. I did not meet the stronger bonds of love, as among the witnesses. Wherever you go, the house of the fellow is opened for you. "

"I HAVE NOT MET MORE LARGE KNOWLEDGE OF LOVE, AS AMONG WITNESSES. WHERE WOULD YOU LEAVE, YOU HAVE A COUNTRY HOUSE FOR YOU "

Steadily adhered to extremist positions

Prosecutor - a young guy in a snow-white shirt, on the table in front of him is an iPhone and keys to a foreign car - he reads the indictment. The judge insists that he read the text to the end. Two and a half hours Arkady looks at the prosecutor, who does not take his eyes off the sheet of paper. Carefully and calmly. Twenty coreligionists sit in the hall, too, without stirring (the others were not allowed, there was not enough room). When they give the floor to Hakobyan, his hands begin to tremble.

Hakobyan is tried on the basis of Part 1. Art. 282 ("Raising hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity"). He is accused that during the meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses he "steadfastly adhered to extremist positions and nationalist views," committed a "deliberate crime against the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the state."

"Acting in pursuance of criminal intent, on March 20, 2016, during the period from 10:00 to 13:00, the exact time is not established by the investigation, wishing to humiliate the dignity of a group of people on the basis of attitude towards religion, stated the following:" Muslims are mujahideen, and They kill people, and Orthodox priests are thieves, "pedophiles" (in the document of the indictment only this word for some reason appears in inverted commas). However, audio or video recordings of Hakobyan's speech are not attached to the case. Examination is carried out only on the phrase, written down by the witnesses of the prosecution.

Six witnesses to the prosecution

In a small annexe to the house in Prokhladnoye there was Hakobyan's workshop. Sewing machine from the GDR with peeling paint, rusted iron iron, on the hanger hang woolen pants with arrows. Until his pension, Hakobyan was engaged in sewing, now from time to time his acquaintances bring him clothes for repairs - but the eyes fail the tailor. It was in this room that law enforcement bodies found and seized several books on March 27 last year, which appear in the indictment as extremist (in fact, they are not on the federal list).

Religious books found in Hakobyan's workshop during the search. According to prosecution witnesses, they contain extremist information.

The second episode that the investigation imputes to Hakobyan is the distribution of extremist literature (books and pamphlets entitled "How to achieve happiness in life", "How to develop a close relationship with God?", "What can people hope for," etc.) among the parishioners. According to the prosecutor's version, on March 27, a week after the "extremist" speech, Hakobyan distributed to the parishioners literature, included in the federal list of extremist materials several years ago, and asked to distribute it among the cool people. It was on this day that the investigative authorities visited the "Hall of the Kingdom" with a search, found there prohibited literature, took the DVR, but returned it after a while. Empty. Records of cameras to the indictment for some reason did not apply.

Hakobyan claims that literature was thrown into the "Hall of the Kingdom", where the list of publications banned by the Justice Ministry hangs right on the bulletin board. According to Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the management committee of the Jehovah's Witnesses Management Center in Russia, this method has not been practiced for the first time. Only in 2017 were recorded and laid out on Youtube sixty cases, when prohibited literature was thrown into the liturgical premises, where it was later discovered by the investigative authorities. "As soon as any publication is included in the list of banned literature, we write letters to the parishioners, we warn them - and they immediately get rid of them, they stop distributing. Why should we harm ourselves? In the list of 95 publications, and we have thousands of available publications. We can read those that are not prohibited by law, "explains Sivulsky.

The witnesses on the part of the prosecution are six members of the congregation. They claim that they began to visit the organization from November to March 2016. The scenarios are repeated: first the neighbor or friend told them about "Jehovah's Witnesses", then they went to the meeting, heard a speech about the "Mujahideen," a week later they received books and pamphlets from Hakobyan's hands, distributed to the local people, came home, went to the Justice Ministry's website and They saw these publications in the federal list of extremist literature. Then came the statement to the police.

According to Anton Omelchenko, the lawyer defending Hakobyan, only one of the six witnesses - Ostapenko - was on designated days in the "Hall of the Kingdom". At the entrance to the premises the parishioners noticed in his hands banned logs and immediately seized them.

The lawyer requested bills of cell phones of witnesses, after which they corrected their testimony. It turned out that all the witnesses, except Ostapenko, left the mobile phones at home, and their relatives answered the calls - they allegedly forbade the organization to come to meetings with telephones (the believers themselves insist that there is no such prohibition, they only ask to be disconnected at meetings). Currently, all prosecution witnesses do not attend a religious organization.

"Why did they start the criminal case against Hakobyan? Moreover, in the time of Jesus, they thought that the Nazareth sect leader was being executed, and then his followers would flee, "explains the lawyer Omelchenko.

Have come

"I am 69 years old, but to be honest, I did not even know what the word" mujahid "means," Hakobyan admits. "I understood that this was a bad word, but I could not even pronounce it until I had practiced it. Who am I to say you are a mujahid, a pedophile ?! "

"I UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS A BAD WORD, BUT EVEN IT CAN NOT BE DETECTED. WHO AM I, TO SAY, YOU ARE MOJAHED, PEDOFILE ?! "

Hakobyan, a thin man with a gray mustache and several golden crowns. The swarthy face is riddled with deep wrinkles, in the pocket - a handkerchief. He was born in a tiny village in Azerbaijan, where only Armenians once lived, and even the school was Armenian. Parents worked on the collective farm - they gathered grapes, brought up four sons. Arkady wanted to become a teacher and decided to try his luck in the capital, but because of the big competition he could not enter the university. Mom's brother offered him a job in the studio. The rural boy liked the sewing business so much that he decided to forget about the career of the teacher and not to enter the institute.

Arkady Hakobyan

"I especially liked sewing women's coats," recalls Hakobyan. - Then there were a few clothes in the shops, all sewed to order. The men's coats had only two styles, while the women's had a variety. I was young, but I noticed beauty in it. Sam invented models, took patterns from fashion magazines and even in absentia finished the faculty of modeling of the Baku technical school. "

And then the Karabakh conflict began. Armenians left Azerbaijan en masse, Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Hakobyan with three children in late 1988 moved to Kabardino-Balkaria. "The first month was very difficult, you go out into the street and you hear:" We have come, we've come in large numbers. " And then people saw how we behave, and changed our attitude, "- recalls Sonya, wife of Arkadi. The first years the husband and his wife went to the "shabashka" - they worked in the fields, cleaned potatoes, strawberries, apples. Over time, Hakobyan was able to buy a typewriter, a patent (work permit in the Soviet era), began to sew at home men's suits and sell them on the market.

He came to faith in the Cool. At the age of 45 years.

"For a long time the son was sick with purulent otitis," says Hakobyan. - We went to the doctor. He suggested we go to the psychic and pull out the pus from his ear. We obeyed. The psychic acted, took the money, and his wife said that in order for the disease to go away quickly, one must be baptized. We immediately went to the Orthodox Church with the whole family, paid for the ritual. But there was no point. Then I began to study the Bible on my own. I went to different churches - to Baptists, Pentecostals, but could not sit at their meetings. And then I got a book of Jehovah's Witnesses in my hands. I read and imbued. "

Within four months, Hakobyan was at an international congress of Jehovah's Witnesses in Leningrad.

"The event was held at the stadium," he recalled. - To go to him, it was necessary to climb the stairs. I stood at the bottom and watched the people understand. At me already tears flowed: people laugh, rejoice, there is no swearing, insults. I have never met such peaceful and bright relations between people. "

Hakobyan was then struck by how "in the name of God, you can save the world." At dinner Armenians shared sheep cheese and lavash with Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijanis - fruits. At the end of the congress, they hugged and cried. There was a war in Karabakh.

Soviet experience

In 2012, Hakobyan became chairman of the religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" - on a voluntary basis (responsible for the repair and cleaning of the "Hall of the Kingdom", payment of utilities, reports to state bodies). Jehovah's Witnesses claim that they do not even have a paid clergy, they also do not engage in commercial activities - all literature is distributed free of charge. The principle is this: "I received a free gift - give it away freely."

"Hall of the Kingdom" - a brick two-story building almost on the outskirts of the city. Previously, there were weekly meetings (three groups of 150 people came at different times to avoid crowding), now there is a castle on the door - several congregations come in once a week, but only to clean up the house. After the Supreme Court found the organization "extremist", it was entrusted to confiscate all the property of "Jehovah's Witnesses" in favor of the state.

Today across Russia more than 400 local organizations, more than two thousand religious groups and about 168 thousand registered members are registered. All buildings were bought or built with the money of the parishioners (sometimes, as in St. Petersburg, for example, the "hall" was helped to build fellow Christians from Scandinavia). In recent years, witnesses have cleared the territory around the "Hall of the Kingdom" in Prokhladnoye, received letters of gratitude from the city administration for this. Usually at this time of the year they were like cleaning, but now they are silent.

"My brothers and I built the Hall of the Kingdom with our own hands. As much as I could, I sacrificed so much, "recalls parishioner Nikolai. "And now they want to take it from us." It's very hard for us. It's a day off, we have to go to the meeting, but we can not. We have lost our childhood, and now we are trying to take away old age. We are accused of extremism, but you will not even find a toy gun for a child of a Jehovah's Witness. "

 

"WE ACCUSIVE IN EXTREMISM, BUT YOU DO NOT EVER LIKE ANY CHILDREN OF JEHOVAH WITNESS TO FIND A TOY GIVEN PISTOL"

 

Since the meetings are canceled, Nikolai and his wife Tamara read the Bible at home and discuss with each other. They survived the Stalinist repressions and know what it means to be persecuted for their religious views.

Before the accession of the Baltic states, Western Byelorussia, Western Ukraine to the USSR, there were almost no Jehovah's Witnesses in the country. "Due to the geographical situation in the Soviet Union, there were instantly many more Jehovah's Witnesses, and the authorities were faced with the question: what to do with them? They realized that the believers rather firmly stand on their positions, to make them Communists, atheists (the reason for the opposition on the part of the authorities was also the ties with the United States, the teachings of witnesses were regarded as anti-Soviet - TD), forced to serve in the army - does not work. To minimize their influence, a secret plan was invented: Operation North and South. About nine thousand people were exiled to Siberia and Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) - to an eternal settlement, "Sivulsky said.

For the witnesses came at night: simultaneously knocked on thousands of houses, put in freight cars and sent to exile. All property was confiscated by the state.

Vision allows Hakobyan only occasionally to repair clothes of friends.

Tamara was a child when her parents were deported to the Tomsk region. In the fourth grade, her friend Alla became interested in faith, began to attend meetings and often stay overnight in the house of Tamara. His father did not like this, he filed a lawsuit demanding to deprive the parents of Tamara's parents. He promised to re-educate Alla. At the same time, the local newspaper published an article entitled "The Black Claws of Jehovah's Witnesses" - that witnesses are bringing up American spies.

"Before the trial, I was shut down in the school gymnasium, so that I would give up faith," Tamara recalls. - A man came who told that he was once a believer, and then he refused faith, and he started recruiting me, asking me to tell who conducts the meetings, what they say, what they teach me. Dad told me that I did not tell anyone anything - and I was silent. Then this man decided to punish me. Everyone left, closed the school, and I remained there alone. I was scared, I cried. My father and mother walked under the windows and said: "Daughter, do not be afraid, Jehovah is with you." Mice squeaked. I climbed the stairs and sat on it. "

Then there was a court, the fate of several families was decided. Parents came with children. The people shouted: "Take the children from their parents! They teach them everything that's wrong. "," Look what children they are killing! "One teacher said he was ready to adopt them. The children roared.

"60 years have passed, but I still remember the names of the children who were then taken to the orphanage," Tamara says. - Dad did not want to part with me. He asked for permission to take me to his brother in Moldavia and give him custody. He was not refused, although we were not allowed to leave the village at all. At night we returned with the whole family back - the parents pretended to have transferred me to my uncle, but in fact I stayed at home for five years. I went out only in the summer - on vacation, I played with children. Was this really childhood? "

Ideal strangers

Even in exile witnesses managed to receive fresh literature, hold meetings and preach. The community grew day by day. People were amazed at the steadfastness and devotion of believers. When the release order came out of exile, the witnesses had to look for new residences - because the old houses had long been confiscated by the state and occupied by other people. Along with moving people, the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses spread throughout the country.

In modern Russia, the official registration of "Jehovah's Witnesses" was received only in 1991 - forty years after the deportation. Followers of Jehovah were 16 thousand people. Approximately at the same time, witnesses were recognized as victims of political repression, and received appropriate certificates.

In the post-Soviet era, new trials and persecutions were awaited for Jehovah's Witnesses. Since 2009, the publication of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" has been included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Administrative and criminal cases on charges of distributing extremist literature and organizing extremist activities began to be launched. In 2004, they deprived of registration and dissolved the Moscow branch of a religious organization. This decision was challenged in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Russia was ordered to pay the victims 70 thousand euros. Registration of the organization was resumed in 2015.

After the accession of the Crimea, Jehovah's Witnesses (who did not and still do not have problems in Ukraine), like law-abiding citizens, registered their organizations (22 pieces) under Russian jurisdiction. But after a year and a half the situation changed radically. The Supreme Court recognized the religious organization "The Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" as extremist and banned its activities and activities of 395 organizations on the territory of Russia (they are independent legal entities, with the "Management Center" they are united by a common faith).

Arkady Hakobyan in the courtyard of the "Hall of the Kingdom", where meetings of "Jehovah's Witnesses" were held earlier. Now the building is closed to the castle, all religious activities are canceled.

"All this was going on," explains the director of the analytical center "Owl" Alexander Verkhovsky. - First, the literature was banned, then a number of regional organizations were banned on the basis of its distribution. Then, on the basis of these prohibitions, they decided to liquidate the "Management Center" together with all regional branches. That is, at the heart of everything are "extremist" publications, to which the court has one claim - they affirm "religious superiority" of Jehovah's Witnesses over other religious trends. Such a charge is contrary to the constitutional principle of freedom of conscience. Because "Jehovah's Witnesses", like any other religion, maintain some kind of inequality: some people will be saved, others will not, just because their religious beliefs are true. Why are Jehovah's Witnesses subjected to persecution? They are an easy target, an unpopular organization for which very few want to intercede. I also suspect that some high-ranking people sincerely believe that the witnesses are American agents. They are in fact "ideal strangers". "

 

THEY ARE AN EASIER TARGET, A POPULAR ORGANIZATION FOR WHOM IT IS LITTLE TO WAIT. THEY ARE THE IDEAL NEIGHBORS.

 

Sivulsky draws attention to the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are politically neutral, do not sink into political processes and do not criticize the state. "The Bible prescribes respect for power:" Let every soul submit to the higher authorities. " But respect does not involve worship. If a state expects from the worshipers of the God of God, then it goes beyond boundaries. Jehovah's witnesses had a conflict with Hitler, because they refused to glorify him. He is only a man, but he claimed that he belongs only to God. Jesus said, give to Caesar - Caesar's, and God's - to God. Hitler vowed to destroy the "offspring of witnesses" in Germany. So what? Where is Hitler? Out of the concentration camps, more Jehovah's Witnesses came out than went there. "

The last few months, Jehovah's witnesses began to advance on all fronts. One woman was fired from her job for not wearing the ribbon of St. George. The military commissar of the Bakhchsarai district of the Crimea sent a summons to the witness, with the order to appear "to provide documents on the change of faith." Already recorded cases of dismissal from work in budget organizations, although the decision of the Supreme Court on liquidation has not yet entered into force (July 17 will be the court of appeal instance). In the Moscow region, the house of "Jehovah's Witnesses" was burnt. A director of one of the schools, referring to the decision of the Supreme Court, threatened the daughters of witnesses with a transfer to "another form of training" for actions that "do not relate to the educational process." The fact that the girl sang songs of Jehovah's Witnesses, and also talked about God with a classmate.

"It is impossible for witnesses to stop engaging in religious activities," Sivulsky said. - This is not a club for interests, like, for example, philately - the collection of stamps was recognized as illegal - and the person began to collect models of machines. If a witness is asked if he believes in Jehovah, he will never lie. Even those who were in concentration camps refused to sign papers on the renunciation of faith. The price of salvation. None of them thought: "I will sign a paper, but in the depths of my soul I will remain faithful to God." Jehovah's Witnesses are known for always getting together. As the first Christians, who, despite persecution by the authorities, also gathered. This is the instruction of Jesus, we can not abolish it. He said: "There, where two or three gather in my name, there I will be among you." What we know from the Bible is very valuable. There are many people who want to hear this, they need faith. Somehow Jesus was told: "Shut up, do not preach, forbid people to glorify themselves." To which he replied: "If they are silent, the stones will cry out."

Tomorrow will be dolma

In the evening, Hakobyan and his wife visit Rafik. They drink tea with thyme, watch "Field of Miracles".

"For forty years he has not offended flies, there have been no conflicts between us. If I'm tired, then I'll ask Arkady to bring me a glass of tea. He will do it, even if we have guests, "says Sonia, the wife of Arkadi Hakobyan (by the way, their youngest daughter is not in the congregation).

Arkady tells how his attitude to his wife changed after studying the Bible.

"According to the Armenian tradition, the word of the man in the house is the law. Frankly, I could have yelled at my wife before, humiliated. She could express her opinion, but my word still remained in force. And when I began to study the Bible, I came across a phrase: wives should respect husbands. I then asked myself the question: what does it take of me to be respected by my wife? The Bible says: "Husbands, love your wives as your own bodies." I do not want to hurt myself, to humiliate, so I must love my wife as well as myself. "

He considers accusations of extremism to be a "humiliation of human dignity". "Extremists are, as I understand it, who can use violence, kill, harm. But I'm not like that. In the group where we studied the Bible, we are taught to live in peace and love with all people, to love our enemies. They can ban our organization, put me in jail, but what I have in my heart can not be taken away. This power will ultimately be in the answer to the Creator, - says Hakobyan. And then he adds, "I'm worried that the kvochka does not eat anything for a second day." It's a pity for her, I need at least once a day to eat. "

Kinaward goes to the yard, places a stepladder and tears off the grape leaves. Tomorrow will be a dolma.

source<<click (google translated)