Source: www.forum18.org
Date: July 29, 2020
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
City authorities in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) have
ordered the confiscation of the buildings of both Grace Presbyterian
Church, and of Agape Pentecostal Church which is building a place of
worship on the same site. City authorities claim the land is needed for a
new kindergarten. But officials refuse to explain why they cannot find
another site for this, despite two possibly suitable other buildings being
in the same Baikonur District of the capital.
Officials have also refused to explain why Grace Church is being offered
compensation of far less value than its church building is worth. The
Church legally bought the former college building in 2001 and has spent a
lot of money on renovation (see below).
The decree to confiscate the property came on 14 February 2020 from
Nur-Sultan Akim (head of administration) Altai Kulginov. An earlier 2014
attempt to confiscate the property – also allegedly for a kindergarten
– was resolved between the Akimat and the Church. Grace Church is trying
to challenge the 2020 decree through the courts, but the judge hearing the
case is ill and it is unclear when it will resume (see below).
Dmitry Kan, Grace Church's Pastor, told Forum 18 that "we simply want to
continue to use our property for worship" (see below).
"From 2002 we have dreamed of having our own building, and we just started
building it," Igor Tsay, Pastor of Agape Church, told Forum 18. "And then
this. It was unexpected – a shock." The Church stopped construction of
its new place of worship and offices as soon as it learnt of the decision
to confiscate the site (see below).
The move to confiscate both churches' property appears to have been
initiated by the then Construction and Residential Policy Department of the
Akimat (city administration). It is unclear if corruption is a factor in
the confiscation decision. Local media reported on 17 July that an unnamed
former head of the Department is being investigated over the alleged
embezzlement of 200 Million Tenge (see below).
Bauyrzhan Bakirov, a deputy chair of the Religious Affairs Committee of the
Information and Social Affairs Ministry, was unable to explain why the city
authorities decided to confiscate Grace Church. "It is a complex issue. I
must look into it," he told Forum 18. He insisted that "we have nothing
against the Church" when asked why it has repeatedly faced state attempts
to confiscate its property.
Both churches have appealed to President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, asking him
to have the decree annulled and to allow the churches to continue using
their site in central Nur-Sultan (see below).
The regime has often used property-related issues against religious
communities exercising their freedom of religion and belief (see below).
Grace Church has earlier faced state hostility, culminating in the 2013
incarceration of its retired Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev in a
psychiatric hospital. In 2014 he was convicted of allegedly harming the
health of a church member, despite credible denials of the allegation and a
lack of legality and due process throughout the entire investigation and
trial (see below).
Grace Church legal owners since 2001
Grace Presbyterian Church has nearly 500 members, Pastor Dmitry Kan told
Forum 18 on 27 July 2020. Until the coronavirus pandemic the Church held
several meetings for worship each Sunday in its place of worship in central
Nur-Sultan, with meetings also held on most evenings of the week.
Grace Church first gained state registration, and so the right to exist, on
26 June 1995. It gained re-registration in December 2012, according to the
Justice Department certificate seen by Forum 18, following the adoption of
the 2011 Religion Law requiring all religious communities to re-apply for
state permission to exist.
The Church bought its building in what is now the Baikonur District of the
capital on 3 September 2001. A former kindergarten, the building was then
used as a Continuing Education College. The Church bought the building and
the 0.136 hectares (0.336 acres) of land on which the building stands from
the college.
Retired Grace Church pastor targeted along with Church
Masked police searched Grace Church on 3 October 2012 and seized computers,
valuables and religious books they insisted were "extremist", though they
could not explain what was "extremist". Police also took blood specimens to
see if the Church uses "hallucinogenic" substances for Communion – local
media carried the same allegations. The alleged
"hallucinogens" were a commonly drunk local red tea used as a non-alcoholic
communion wine. Church members noted that police displayed a curious lack
of interest in the allegations they were supposedly investigating.
In 2013 the regime put Grace Church's retired Pastor Bakhytzhan
Kashkumbayev and atheist writer Aleksandr Kharlamov into a psychiatric hospital. No official
ever produced medical reasons for these incarcerations, despite repeated
questioning by Forum 18 and others. A criminal case was brought against
Pastor Kashkumbayev, who led Grace Church until his retirement in October
2011, claiming he had harmed the health of a church member who repeatedly
instead that they had not been harmed and that the Pastor was "totally
innocent".
Pastor Kashkumbayev was convicted on 17 February 2014, despite credible
claims of lack of legality and due process throughout the entire
investigation and trial.
2014 confiscation decree resolved
On 5 November 2014 a previous Akim ordered the confiscation of Grace
Church's building and land, also ostensibly to build a kindergarten. The
deadline for seizing the site was given as 6 February 2016.
Grace Church tried to challenge the decree in court. However, the Akimat's
Specialised Inter-District Economic Court rejected the suit on 1 April
2015, according to the decision seen by Forum 18.
However, the Akimat did not confiscate the Church property. "The parties
reached a compromise," Grace Church notes. "What has changed in six years?"
Recent Akimat approvals for buying and building
On 23 January 2018 the Church bought from the Akimat two garages in a
corner of the site, but not the land on which they stand. The remainder of
the site (which the Church could not afford to buy) remains the property of
the Akimat.
The Akimat gave Grace Church free use of 1.2158 hectares (3 acres) on the
site (which excludes the garages) for 10 years at a time. The current
10-year period on that part of the site runs out in May 2026. The Akimat
also gave the Church free use of the land under and around the garages
until March 2029, according to the February 2020 decree ordering the
confiscation of the site.
In the years since 2001, Grace Church has reconstructed the main building.
This is used both for meetings for worship and for homes for about 20
people who are church leaders and their families.
Grace Church points out that as recently as 18 November 2019, the Akimat's
Architecture Department approved further renovation work on their building.
Internal works have been completed, but the Church has had to put on hold
renovation of the facade which had been due to be carried out in summer
2020.
On 20 December 2019, the Architecture Department approved the Church's
plans to demolish the old garages and build a new garage and office
building.
In January 2020, the Akimat's Urban Environment Control and Quality
Department similarly approved the Church's plans to build another building.
2020 confiscation decree
The order to confiscate Grace Church's property came in a 14 February
decree from Nur-Sultan Akim (head of administration) Altai Kulginov. The
decree – seen by Forum 18 – orders the confiscation of the Church's
buildings and land between 24 May 2020 and 24 May 2021 "in order to conduct
investigative and planning work for a kindergarten". Responsibility for
fulfilling the decree was assigned to the Construction and Residential
Policy Department. Responsibility for overseeing the decree's
implementation was assigned to a Deputy Akim, Nurlan Nurkenov.
Officials informed Grace Church of the work to begin to plan a new
kindergarten on 11 March.
Grace Church points out that Baikonur District contains two other buildings
which have long been left half-built. The Church thinks either could be
turned into a kindergarten.
Deputy Akim Nurkenov's phone went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on
28 and 29 July.
The Church wrote to Akim Kulginov asking why the city authorities had
decided to confiscate its place of worship, residence for its clergy, and
land. It received no reply. The Church then asked the Akimat's Architecture
Department, which replied in writing that the initiator and overseer of the
decree was the Akimat's Construction and Residential Policy Department
(which was then led by Asylbek Esenbayev).
In March 2020 the Akimat was reorganised. Esenbayev was put in charge of
the new Housing and Housing Inspection Department. The new Building
Department is headed by Samat Sarsengaliyev.
The Housing and Housing Inspection Department confirmed to Forum 18 that it
is in charge of implementing the February 2020 decree. However, an official
told Forum 18 on 29 July that Esenbayev was unavailable in a meeting.
Soon after getting news of the confiscation decree, Grace Church leaders
met a Nur-Sultan Deputy Akim, Askar Amrin, Pastor Kan told Forum 18. Amrin
claimed to Church leaders that complaints had come in – allegedly from
local residents – that the Church is a "sect" and demanding that the
Akimat take its building away.
State-funded so-called "anti-sect centres" have long been used to encourage
hostility against the exercise of freedom of religion and belief.
Deputy Akim Amrin asked Grace Church representatives about their faith,
then summoned the head of the Akimat's Religious Affairs Department,
Nurdaulet Almukhanov, asking him to investigate if the Church is a "sect"
and to report back to him. Amrin gave Church leaders no clear answer to why
the Akimat had issued the confiscation decree.
Deputy Akim Amrin told Forum 18 on 29 July through his assistant that
responsibility for implementing the decree lies with Deputy Akim Nurkenov,
and refused to come to the phone.
Religious Affairs Department head Almukhanov refused to discuss with Forum
18 on 28 July what he had told Deputy Akim Amrin about Grace Church. "Grace
Church is a registered religious organisation," he kept repeating.
Grace Church lodged a suit against Nur-Sultan Akimat and its Housing and
Housing Inspection Department at the Akimat's Specialised Inter-District
Economic Court. On 1 July, the Court assigned the suit to Judge Kulimzhan
Zhilbayeva, according to court records. On 9 July, Judge Zhilbayeva set a
hearing date for 21 July, according to her decision seen by Forum 18.
"The Judge then fell ill and it is not clear when the suit will now be
heard," Pastor Kan told Forum 18. The Court website lists no new date for
the hearing.
Agape Church building also ordered confiscated
The confiscation decree also affects Nur-Sultan's Agape Pentecostal Church.
Since 2006, Agape Church has been renting a commercial venue elsewhere in
Nur-Sultan for meetings for worship.
"We collected donations to build our own place of worship from church
members from 2002 and in the early 2010s we found a site," Pastor Igor Tsay
told Forum 18 on 28 July. "But after a whole year of planning the
authorities then refused permission to build. They claimed the land was
needed for a block of flats." He said the flats had never been built and
the land remains unused.
Because of the difficulty Agape Church has had since 2002 in trying to find
land on which to build, Grace Church allowed the Church to build on its
property. "When we got permission for building, we went to the Akimat's
Land Committee," Agape Church's Pastor Tsay explained. "The specialist told
us that if they give us permission to build, that means that afterwards
they will allow us to buy the land."
Once the Akimat gave permission to build, Agape Church began building. It
has built two storeys of what it had intended to be its first-ever
dedicated place of worship, as well as offices for it and for Kazakhstan's
Pentecostal Union which it is a member of.
"For 18 years we have dreamed of having our own building, and we just
started building it," Pastor Tsay added. "And then this. It was unexpected
– a shock." The church stopped construction of its new place of worship
and offices as soon as it learnt of the decision to confiscate the site.
Corruption?
It is not clear if corruption plays any part in the repeated Akimat
attempts to confiscate both churches' property. The 2020 move to confiscate
the property appears to have been initiated by the then Construction and
Residential Policy Department of the Akimat (city administration). Local
media reported on 17 July that the Nur-Sultan branch of the Anti-Corruption
Agency is investigating an unnamed former head of the Department over the
alleged embezzlement of 200,000,000 Tenge (480,000 US Dollars).
"Our property is close to the centre of the capital, and the site might be
worth the equivalent of 3,000,000 US Dollars [1,255,000,000 Tenge]," Grace
Church Pastor Kan told Forum 18. "The Akimat is offering compensation of
the equivalent of about 100,000 Dollars [42,000,000 Tenge]."
Officials have told Pastor Tsay that because the Agape building is
unfinished, the Church will receive compensation only for the cost of the
materials used so far. "We're not seeking money, but this was money we
painstakingly collected over 18 years from 2002," Agape Church Pastor Tsay
noted. "They're trying to take away even that from us."
In late July 2020, Pastor Tsay wrote to President Tokayev, expressing alarm
at the confiscation with almost no compensation. "A representative of the
Akimat cynically said that we have no chance, compensation will only cover
the building materials," he told the President. "My request is to cancel
the decree of the Akimat. Let us complete the construction of the building
and conduct meetings for worship there."
Nurdaulet Almukhanov, head of the Akimat's Religious Affairs Department,
insisted to Forum 18 that "this is not confiscation" and the Akimat is
offering a lot of money". He refused to say how much. He also refused to
say why the Akimat is not considering other sites for the proposed
kindergarten.
Grace Church's Pastor Kan declined to comment on whether he thinks
corruption might be involved. "We simply want to continue to use our
property for worship."
Asked by Forum 18 if he suspects corruption might be behind the decision to
confiscate the two churches' property, Agape Church's Pastor Tsay replied:
"Honestly, I don't know."
Kazakhstan scores poorly, at 113 out of 198 countries globally, on Transparency
International's 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index.
The telephone of the Investigation Department of the city branch of the
Anti-Corruption Agency was not answered each time Forum 18 called on 29
July.
Property issues used to restrict freedom of religion and belief
Before 2011, the regime frequently used property issues as a way of
restricting the freedom of religion and belief of religious communities
officials disliked .
The tactics used included stripping religious communities of legal
ownership of buildings and land, and the use of excuses such as fire
safety. In one such example, Grace Protestant Church in Semey was forced to
brick up windows "in case there is a fire in the neighbouring property".
The Church was also prohibited from using its own building.
Since the latest Religion Law came into force in October 2011, the regime's
use of property issues to restrict freedom of religion and belief has been
less frequent. But
occasional examples of this have included a Methodist Church being forced
in 2012 to "voluntarily" announce its closure in local media after the wife
of the Church's Pastor was fined for the Church using her private home –
the Church's registered legal address - for meetings for worship. In a different case,
Kentau's Love Presbyterian Church was fined and forced to close for alleged
violations of fire safety rules in a building it rents.
More recent excuses to stop religious communities using their own property
have included use in November 2017 of the entire Jehovah's Witness
Administrative Centre in Almaty being banned for three months because the
25 surveillance cameras it had installed to comply with the law left three
small areas without camera coverage.
Similarly, in March 2018 Shymkent's Protestant New Life Church in South
Kazakhstan Region was fined and banned for a month for having only three
rather than five fire detectors in a building on church property used for
storage only. The fireinspector who brought the case refused to explain to
Forum 18 why he did
not issue the order to install the extra fire detectors in writing and why
the church was punished despite having installed the extra detectors he
demanded within the specified one month.
Among the regime's other restrictions on the exercise of freedom of
religion and belief, it is illegal for communities without state
registration to exist, and it is illegal for state-registered religious
communities to meet for worship anywhere other than within state-registered
buildings. All Muslim communities and all mosques are state-controlled
(undefined://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2409&source=gmail&ust=1596158665250000&usg=AFQjCNHtQUS_OqaEqZWW7hoZ9SS81QNIXA">undefined
Online prayer and fasting
On 16 July 2020, more than 200 church members from both Grace Church and
Agape Church gathered in a socially-distanced circle around their building
for silent prayer, Agape's Pastor Tsay told Forum 18.
Agape Church has organised online prayer and fasting this week as they
press for the confiscation decision to be overturned, Pastor Tsay added. He
said he had been encouraged by the response and support from around the
world after on 27 July writing on his Facebook page about the proposed
confiscation of the Church's half-finished building. (END)
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan
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For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey
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Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
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