Mercenary involuntarily

Citizen of Georgia Gulchohra Topchiyeva, who has been living in Baku since 2001, in 2005 appealed to the State Migration Service of the Azerbaijan Republic with a request to grant her and her minor children citizenship of  Azerbaijan.

She was explained in the State Migration Service that to do this first she needs to renounce of Georgian citizenship. Besides she was given a long list of documents to be submitted.

A year later, G. Topchiyeva had received Decree no. 474 of the President Mikhail Saakashvili about deprivation her of Georgian citizenship. Decree and all requested papers were presented by her to the State Migration Service.

However, four years later, after repeated requests and presenting additional documents G. Topchiyeva received a letter from the State Migration Service about refusal to grant her citizenship of Azerbaijan without giving a reason for the action.

G. Topchiyeva appealed to the first Administrative Economic Court which, however, also without giving any reason had dismissed her claim (Judge V. Bakhshiyeva).

Baku Appeal Court (M. Taghizade, S. Guseynov and I. Guseynov) and the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan Republic (Z. Guliyev) left the decision of “little brother” in force, in connection with this G. Topchiyeva had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

The most interesting thing is that during the court battles the grown son of G. Topchiyeva drafted into the armed forces of Azerbaijan in which he managed to fulfill his constitutional duty to the Republic of Azerbaijan, while Azerbaijan was not a citizen.

Thus it happened that the son of G. Topchiyeva to whom was denied citizenship in Azerbaijan, served in the army as a mercenary. According to Art. 114 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan Republic, the recruitment, training, financing or other material provision of a mercenary is a crime and punishable by imprisonment for a period of 4 to 8 years.

This post is also available in: Russian