The president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Jan Paulsen, called on church members to remember and pray for the persecuted, especially those in Turkmenistan. Paulsen made his call in conjunction with the release of a statement on December 19 by the Adventist Church’s public affairs and religious liberty department that protests the ongoing religious oppression in Turkmenistan “in the strongest possible terms.”

“At this time when thoughts of peace and goodwill are often spoken of, we all need to remember those who are denied the freedom to worship and to practice their beliefs,” says Paulsen. “We are deeply concerned over the continuing situation in Turkmenistan. Such reports are very distressing and as yet our communications with the authorities have not brought any response. The issuing of this statement highlights our grave concern and our wish for a rapid resolution to the ongoing tragedy. I appeal to our international church family to continue to pray for the persecuted around the world, and most specifically for our fellow believers in Turkmenistan.”

The statement cites religious freedom and human rights violations that include “arbitrary detention and imprisonment, exile and deportation, the destruction of houses of worship, the confiscation of personal property, the imposition of punitive fines, the loss of employment, [and] mental and physical abuse.”

According to Felix Corley of Keston News Service, an organization dedicated to providing information regarding religion in the former Soviet Union, “Turkmenistan has the most repressive policy towards religion of all the former Soviet republics. Only Muslim communities loyal to the officially sanctioned Muslim Board and some parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church have been allowed to register. All other faiths are treated as illegal. Believers have been harassed and fined for their religious activity. Some have been imprisoned, including the Baptist Shageldy Atakov, serving a four year sentence, while places of worship have been destroyed, such as the Adventist church in Ashgabad, bulldozed in November 1999.”

The statement also raises specific recent instances of persecution by Turkmen police who have targeted individual believers from the Baptist, Pentecostal, and Adventist churches, arresting, fining, and imprisoning them.

“The above-referenced actions represent violations of fundamental human rights that are in direct conflict with the established international norms, and are yet further evidence of the Turkmenistan state’s hostility to religious minorities,” says the statement. “Repeated incidents of apparent state-sponsored or condoned vilification of Protestant Christians in the national media, the use of physical intimidation and judicial sanctions against minority believers, and the escalating attacks by state agencies against innocent church members, are an affront to the basic principles of human dignity.”

The statement, available online at parl.gc.adventist.org/turkmenstat.html, calls on the Turkmen government “to cease all oppressive actions against religious minorities, to free all prisoners of conscience, and to fully conform to the international standards of religious freedom.” It concludes with an appeal from the Adventist Church for “all those of good will to stand together against such multiple injustices and the ongoing religious persecution in Turkmenistan.”