How long will this be!(?): Bandit pogrom of an unregistered Baptist assembly! Bloody massacre and arrest of those present at the meeting, confiscation of books, obscene insults,

· Baptists, Persecution, Interview, Vestibule, Events, Contemporary Persecution, Refugee Status, Turkmenistan, Church

People “do not forgive goodness,” strange as it may seem. People crucified Christ, and they persecute Him still today. In this world where our Lord was crucified, we must be persecuted if we are not in friendship with this world.
And whoever follows Christ without the cross is unworthy of Him. For “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”
V. F. Martsinkovsky

An urgent and alarming report has come from Turkmenistan. In one of the country’s regional centers, the city of Dashoguz, on Sunday, September 23, 2012, a raid was carried out on a church of Evangelical Christian Baptists. The presbyter of the Turkmen church, 75-year-old Begjan-aga, and other believers were detained and taken to an unknown destination. All Christian books were seized. The pastor’s wife was also harmed.

Here is what our source told us: “A group of people from the police, the hyakimlik (local administration), and other agencies burst into the home of Pastor Begjan-aga, where the service had just begun. Those who came broke into all the rooms to search, giving no explanation for their actions, saying only that the church had no registration; they also took all the books that were in the house. Everyone present at the service was indiscriminately pushed out of the apartment and forced onto a bus. The homeowner was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and shoved out of the house. The homeowner’s son, Shohrat, decided to resist them and demand to see their documents, blocking them from entering the rooms, but that was his mistake; two men seized him, and a third beat him.

Turkmenbashi Palace in Turkmenistan

The actions of this group of officials did not resemble any previous actions by the authorities. These people behaved like barbarians. Klara-apa, the wife of Begjan-aga, also tried to stop them, spreading her arms in front of the bedroom entrance, but they struck her hands and flung her aside. To her protest, an officer said: “Shut up, you old monkey, or it will be worse,” and went on calling her obscene words, foul language such as this woman had never heard in her life. She said: “I am like a mother to you, and you treat me like this, you have bruised all my hands, you threw my husband, an old man, out of the apartment by the scruff of his neck like some cat… Where is your conscience and the Turkmen respect for elders?” But they did not react to her words; moreover, they tried to drag her out of the apartment as well, but Klara-apa resisted and held her ground to the last, saying: “Do whatever you want, but I am not going to your station with you.” The police officers, seeing that they could not handle the woman, left her. All the rest were taken to the police station. When Klara-apa turned to a nearby officer and said: “Look what he did to my hands, how he beat them, they are all bloody,” the officer replied: “I didn’t see anything!”

This happened on September 23 at around 2 p.m. There is no other news (as of the evening of that day).

Begjan-aga has been the presbyter of the Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists for more than 15 years. When the registration of religious organizations began in 2004, he was one of the first to submit documents for registration. But his documents were not accepted, and since then he has been constantly refused, with the claim that there are some errors. The documents for registering the church were officially accepted six years ago and are now under consideration.

Pray for this situation, for this church, for these people, and for the situation in the country and the actions toward believers.”

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