Bahá'í Faith in Georgia (country)

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The Bahá'í Faith in Georgia began with its arrival in the region in 1850 through its association with the precursor religion the Bábí Faith during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. [1] During the period of Soviet policy of religious oppression, the institutions of the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Republics were progressively dissolved [2] and so disappeared from communication with Bahá'ís elsewhere. [3] However in 1963 an individual was identified [4] in Tbilisi. [5] Following Perestroika the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Georgia formed in 1991 [6] and Georgian Bahá'ís elected their first National Spiritual Assembly in 1995. [7] The religion is noted as growing in Georgia. [1] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 1,588 Bahá'ís in 2005. [8]

Tbilisi Capital city in Georgia

Tbilisi, in some countries also still known by its pre-1936 international designation Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, since then Tbilisi served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tbilisi was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy, governing both Southern and Northern Caucasus.

Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s and 1990s and is widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. One of the primary goals of the archive is to democratize access to academic information on religion by making this information as widely accessible as possible. Over 900 surveys, membership reports, and other data collections are currently available for online preview, and most can be downloaded free of charge. Other features include national profiles, GIS maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, historical timelines, tables, charts, and other summary reports.

Contents

Early period

From 1850 onwards, small groups of Bábís spread across the Caucasus including Georgia. [1] Jamshíd-i-Gurjí is a noted member of the religion from Georgia who lived in the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. [9] He was arrested in Constantinople [10] and subsequently rather than being banished with Bahá'u'lláh's party to Akka or others to Cyprus, he was deported to Persia though in transit he was released by the Khurds. [10]

Caucasus region in Eurasia bordered on the south by Iran, on the southwest by Turkey, on the west by the Black Sea, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the north by Russia

The Caucasus or Caucasia is an area situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and occupied by Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus mountain range, which has historically been considered a natural barrier between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Baháulláh Founder of the Baháí Faith

Bahá'u'lláh, was a Persian religious leader, prophet and the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, which advocates universal peace and unity among all races, nations, and religions.

Constantinople capital city of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empire

Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), of the Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261), until finally falling to the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). It was reinaugurated in 324 from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, and dedicated on 11 May 330. The city was located in what is now the European side and the core of modern Istanbul.

By the time the effects of the October Revolution began to spread across the Russian Empire transforming it into the Soviet Union, Bahá'ís had spread through much of Soviet territory. [11] And initially the religion still grew in organization when the election of the regional National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the Caucasus and Turkistan took place in 1925. [12] However, with the Soviet policy of religious oppression, the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and any properties were nationalized. As the institutions of the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Republics were progressively dissolved [2] and so disappeared from communication with Bahá'ís elsewhere. [3] It is known that many were imprisoned and died, some were deported to Siberia, though most were deported to Iran. [13] In 1953 Bahá'ís started to move to the Soviet Republics in Asia, after the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, initiated a plan called the Ten Year Crusade. At the culmination of this plan, in 1963, various centers were restored in the region including Georgia, [4] [14] where there was an individual Bahá'í identified in Tbilisi. [6]

October Revolution Bolshevik uprising during the Russian Revolution of 1917

The October Revolution, officially known in Soviet historiography as the Great October Socialist Revolution and commonly referred to as the October Uprising, the October Coup, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Bolshevik Coup or the Red October, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 7 November 1917.

Soviet Union 1922–1991 country in Europe and Asia

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 30 December 1922 to 26 December 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk.

Shoghi Effendi Guardian of the Baháí Faith

Shoghí Effendí Rabbání, better known as Shoghi Effendi, was the Guardian and appointed head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957. Shoghi Effendi spent his early life in ʿAkkā (Acre). His education was directed to serving as secretary and translator to his grandfather, `Abdu'l-Bahá, then leader of the Bahá'í Faith and son of the religion's founder, Bahá'u'lláh.

Modern community

It was not until the onset of Perestroika that the Bahá'ís began to meet and organize again. The first Local Spiritual Assembly of Georgia to form was in 1991 in Tbilisi. [6] After being part of the regional national assembly with Russia since 1992, Georgian Bahá'ís elected their first National Spiritual Assembly in 1995 [7] with Hand of the Cause, Rúhíyyih Khanum representing the Universal House of Justice. [15] In 2004 members of the Bahá'í community in Georgia opened the first Degree Confluence point in Georgia. [16] Addressing circumstances in Georgia, Bahá'ís have observed that publishing their materials is "not very easy", and "Some companies are not happy to print our material – they have only limited understanding. Plus they are afraid that if the government finds out they might have problems." [17] There is a project to revise school curricula to represent the diverse religions in Georgia on a more neutral basis than done in recent years. Not all schools introduced revised religious education classes - "about half the schools in Tbilisi have these classes". [17] The Bahá'í Faith is among the religions with a small following who function unobtrusively and have mainly tended to be able to operate without much hostile government attention. [18]

Universal House of Justice Elected institution governing the worldwide Baháí community

The Universal House of Justice is the nine-member supreme ruling body of the Bahá'í Faith. It was envisioned by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, as an institution that could legislate on issues not already addressed in the Bahá'í writings, providing flexibility for the Bahá'í Faith to adapt to changing conditions. It was first elected in 1963, and subsequently every five years, by delegates consisting of the members of Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world.

Degree Confluence Project

The Degree Confluence Project is a World Wide Web-based, all-volunteer project which aims to have people visit each of the integer degree intersections of latitude and longitude on Earth, posting photographs and a narrative of each visit online. The project describes itself as "an organized sampling of the world".

Some 47 Georgian Bahá'ís traveled to Baku to be among the 360 participants in a regional conference of the religion in 2009. [19]

Baku Place in Azerbaijan

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku's urban population was estimated at just over 2,000,000 people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.

Demographics

The religion is noted as growing in Georgia. [1] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 1,588 Bahá'ís in 2005. [8]

World Christian Encyclopedia is a reference work published by Oxford University Press, known for providing membership statistics for major and minor world religions in every country of the world, including historical data and projections of future populations.

See also

Related Research Articles

The following is a basic timeline of the Bábí and Bahá'í religions emphasizing dates that are relatively well known. For a more comprehensive chronology of the timeline, see the references at the bottom.

Spiritual Assembly is a term given by `Abdu'l-Bahá to refer to elected councils that govern the Bahá'í Faith. Because the Bahá'í Faith has no clergy, they carry out the affairs of the community. In addition to existing at the local level, there are national Spiritual Assemblies.

The Bahá'í Faith has had challenges to its leadership, usually at the death of the head of the religion. The vast majority of Bahá'ís have followed a line of authority from Bahá'u'lláh to `Abdu'l-Bahá to Shoghi Effendi to the Custodians to the Universal House of Justice. Sects diverging from this line of leadership have failed to attract a sizeable following. In this sense, there is only one major branch of the Bahá'í Faith, represented by at least 5 million adherents, whereas the groups that have broken away have either become extinct with time, or have remained very small in number, representing far less than 0.1% of all Bahá'ís. Globally the Bahá'í community has maintained its unity.

Bahá'í laws are laws and ordinances used in the Bahá'í Faith and are a fundamental part of Bahá'í practice. The laws are based on authenticated texts from Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and also includes subsequent interpretations from `Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, and legislation by the Universal House of Justice. Bahá'í law is presented as a set of general principles and guidelines and individuals must apply them as they best seem fit. While some of the social laws are enforced by Bahá'í institutions, the emphasis is placed on individuals following the laws based on their conscience, understanding and reasoning, and Bahá'ís are expected to follow the laws for the love of Bahá'u'lláh. The laws are seen as the method of the maintenance of order and security in the world.

Bahá'í history is often traced through a sequence of leaders, beginning with the Báb's declaration in Shiraz on the evening of May 22, 1844, and ultimately resting on an Administrative Order established by the central figures of the religion. The religion had its background in two earlier movements in the nineteenth century, Shaykhism and Bábism. Shaykhism centred on theosophical doctrines and many Shaykhis expected the return of the hidden Twelfth Imam. Many Shaykhis joined the messianic Bábí movement in the 1840s where the Báb proclaimed himself to be the return of the hidden Imam. As the Bábí movement spread in Iran, violence broke out between the ruling Shi'a Muslim government and the Bábís, and ebbed when government troops massacred them, and executed the Báb in 1850.

The Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Ukraine, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Bahá'í Faith as far back as 1847. Following the Ukrainian diasporas, succeeding generations of ethnic Ukrainians became Bahá'ís and some have interacted with Ukraine previous to development of the religion in the country. There are currently around 1000 Bahá'ís in Ukraine, in 13 communities.

The Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia. By 1887 a community of Bahá'í refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat. Shortly afterwards — by 1894 — Russia made Turkmenistan part of the Russian Empire. While the Bahá'í Faith spread across the Russian Empire and attracted the attention of scholars and artists, the Bahá'í community in Ashgabat built the first Bahá'í House of Worship, elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions and was a center of scholarship. During the Soviet period religious persecution made the Bahá'í community almost disappear — however, Bahá'ís who moved into the regions in the 1950s did identify individuals still adhering to the religion. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Bahá'í communities and their administrative bodies started to develop across the nations of the former Soviet Union; In 1994 Turkmenistan elected its own National Spiritual Assembly however, laws passed in 1995 in Turkmenistan required 500 adult religious adherents in each locality for registration and no Bahá'í community in Turkmenistan could meet this requirement. As of 2007 the religion had still failed to reach the minimum number of adherents to register and individuals have had their homes raided for Bahá'í literature.

The Bahá'í Faith in Dominica begins with a mention by `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, in 1916 as Latin America being among the places Bahá'ís should take the religion to. The island of Dominica was specifically listed as an objective for plans on spreading the religion in 1939 by Shoghi Effendi, who succeeded `Abdu'l-Baha as head of the religion. In 1983, William Nedden is credited with being the first pioneer to Dominica at the festivities associated with the inaugural election of the Dominican Bahá'ís National Spiritual Assembly with Hand of the Cause, Dhikru'llah Khadem representing the Universal House of Justice. Later research records Ivor Ellard arrived two days before, April 17, 1966. The first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Dominica was elected in 1976. Since then, Bahá'ís have participated in several projects for the benefit of the wider community, and in 2001 various sources report between less than 1.4% and up to 1.7% of the island's approximately 70,000 citizens are Bahá'ís.

The Bahá'í in Azerbaijan crosses a complex history of regional changes. Through that series of changes the thread of the Bahá'í Faith traces its history in the region from the earliest moments of the Bábism religion, accepted by Bahá'ís as a predecessor religion, in that one of its most prominent figures, Tahirih, was an Azerbaijani. Followers of the religion formed communities in Nakhichevan before 1850. By the early 20th century the community, now centered in Baku, numbered perhaps 2000 individuals and several Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies and had facilitated the favorable attention of local and regional, and international leaders of thought as well as long-standing leading figures in the religion. However under Soviet rule the Bahá'í community was almost ended though it was quickly reactivated as more than 30 years later when perestroyka loosened controls on religions. The community quickly rallied and re-elected its own National Spiritual Assembly in 1992. The modern Bahá'í population of Azerbaijan, centered in Baku, may have regained its peak from the oppression of the Soviet period of about 2000 people, today with more than 80% converts, although the community in Nakhichevan, where it all began, is still seriously harassed and oppressed. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 1638 Bahá'ís in 2005.

The Bahá'í Faith in Rwanda begins after 1916 with a mention by `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, that Bahá'ís should take the religion to the regions of Africa. The first specific mention of Rwanda was in May 1953 suggesting the expanding community of the Bahá'í Faith in Uganda look at sending pioneers to neighboring areas like Ruanda. The first settlers of the religion arrived in the region by July 1953 when Bahá'ís from the United States and Malawi arrived. By 1963 there were three Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies in Burundi-Ruanda. Through succeeding organizations of the countries in the region, the National Spiritual Assembly of Rwanda was formed in 1972. Bahá'ís, perhaps in the thousands, were among those who perished in the Rwandan Genocide Following the disruption of the Rwandan Civil War the national assembly was reformed in 1997. The Bahá'ís of Rwanda have continued to strive for inter-racial harmony, a teaching which Denyse Umutoni, an assistant director of Shake Hands with the Devil, mentions as among the reasons for her conversion to the religion. 2001 estimates place the Bahá'í population around 15000 while 2005 estimates from the same source shows just over 18900.

The Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early 21st century.

The earliest contact documented to date, between Armenians and the Bábí-Bahá’í religion began on an unfortunate note in the banishments and execution of the Báb, the Founder of the Bábí Faith, viewed by Bahá'ís as a precursor religion, but ended courageously to the credit of the Armenian officer. In that same year the teachings of the new religion were taken to Armenia. More research is necessary to determine the details. Decades later, during the time of Soviet repression of religion, Bahá’ís in Armenia were isolated from Bahá’ís elsewhere. Eventually, by 1963, Bahá’í communities had been identified in Yerevan and Artez and communication re-established. Later, in the time of Perestroika, when increasing freedoms were allowed, there were enough Bahá’ís in some cities that Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies could be formed in those Bahá’í communities in 1991. Armenian Bahá’ís were able to elect their own National Spiritual Assembly in 1995. In such a situation, where religious observance had been a criminal activity, a religious census is problematic. Operation World, published in 2001, approximated the number of Bahá’ís in Armenia at 1400. Three years later, Bahá’ís counted only about 200. Bahá’ís generally count only adult voting members of the community, the other may have been statistically generated from a random sample to include all ages.

The Bahá'í Faith in Angola begins after `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916. The first Bahá'í pioneered to Angola about 1952. By 1963 there was a Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly in Luanda and smaller groups of Bahá'ís in other cities. In 1992 the Bahá'ís of Angola elected their first National Spiritual Assembly. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 2,000 Bahá'ís in 2005.

The Bahá'í Faith in Uzbekistan began in the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion. Circa 1918 there were an estimated 1900 Bahá'ís in Tashkent. By the period of the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union the communities shrank away - by 1963 in the entire USSR there were about 200 Bahá'ís. Little is known until the 1980s when the Bahá'í Faith started to grow across the Soviet Union again. In 1991 a Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was elected but was quickly split among its former members. In 1992, a regional National Spiritual Assembly for the whole of Central Asia was formed with its seat in Ashgabat. In 1994 the National Spiritual Assembly of Uzbekistan was elected. In 2008 eight Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies or smaller groups had registered with the government though more recently there were also raids and expulsions.

The history of the Bahá'í Faith in Russia began soon after the founding in 1844 of the Bábí religion, viewed by Bahá'ís as the direct predecessor of the Bahá'í Faith, with Russian diplomats to Qajar Persia observing, reacting to, and sending updates about the Bábís. The woman later known as Táhirih, who played a central role in the religion of the Báb, was from an influential clerical family from Azerbaijan, which was then ruled by Russia. Russian diplomats later protected Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, before and after his exile from Persia. Around 1884, the religion began to spread into the Russian Empire, where the Bahá'í community in Ashgabat built the first Bahá'í House of Worship, elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions and became a center of scholarship. The Bahá'í Faith also attracted the attention of several Russian scholars and artists. During the Soviet period, Russia adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, leading the Russian Bahá'í community to abandon its administration and properties in accordance with its principle of obedience to legal government, though Bahá'ís across the Soviet Union were nevertheless sent to prisons and camps or abroad. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union Bahá'ís in several cities were able to gather and organize as Perestroyka spread from Moscow through many Soviet republics. The Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of the Russian Federations was ultimately formed in 1995. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated the number of Bahá'ís in Russia at about 18,990 in 2005.

The Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early 21st century. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá'í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. See Bahá'í statistics.

The Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early 21st century. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá'í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. See Bahá'í statistics.

Baháí Faith in Europe

The Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early 21st century. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá'í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. See Bahá'í statistics.

The Bahá'í Faith in Tunisia begins circa 1910 when the first Bahá'í arrives, possibly from Egypt. In 1956 at Ridván, a marked holy day of the religion and a day on which major elections are held, three new Regional Spiritual Assemblies were established including that of North-West Africa with the chairmanship of Enoch Olinga In 1963 a survey of the community counted 1 assembly and 18 organized groups of Bahá'ís in Tunisia. US State Department 2001 estimates mention the Bahá'í community at about 150 persons. However Association of Religion Data Archives and several other sources point to over 1000 Bahá'ís in the country.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Balci, Bayram; Jafarov, Azer (2007-02-20), "Who are the Baha'is of the Caucasus? {Part 1 of 3}", Caucaz.com
  2. 1 2 "Survey of Current Baha'i Activities in the East and West: Persecution and Deportation of the Baha'is of Caucasus and Turkistan". The Baha'i World. Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Committee. VIII (1938-40): 87–90. 1942.
  3. 1 2 Effendi, Shoghi (1936-03-11). The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Haifa, Palestine: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991 first pocket-size edition. pp. 64–67.
  4. 1 2 Monakhova, Elena (2000). "From Islam to Feminism via Baha'i Faith". Women Plus…. 2000 (03).
  5. ↑ Compiled by Hands of the Cause Residing in the Holy Land. "The Bahá'í Faith: 1844-1963: Information Statistical and Comparative, Including the Achievements of the Ten Year International Bahá'í Teaching & Consolidation Plan 1953-1963". p. 84.
  6. 1 2 3 Ahmadi, Dr. (2003). "Major events of the Century of Light". homepage for an online course on the book “Century of Light”. Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  7. 1 2 Hassall, Graham. "Notes on Research on National Spiritual Assemblies". Research notes. Asia Pacific Bahá'í Studies. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  8. 1 2 "Most Baha'i Nations (2005)". QuickLists > Compare Nations > Religions >. The Association of Religion Data Archives. 2005. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
  9. ↑ `Abdu'l-Bahá (1997) [1971]. Memorials of the Faithful (Softcover ed.). Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. pp. 120–122. ISBN   0-87743-242-2.
  10. 1 2 Taherzadeh, A. (1977). The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 2: Adrianople 1863-68. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. pp. 328–9, 409. ISBN   0-85398-071-3.
  11. ↑ "Baha'i Faith History in Azerbaijan". National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Azerbaijan. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  12. ↑ Hassall, Graham (1993). "Notes on the Babi and Baha'i Religions in Russia and its territories". The Journal of Bahá'í Studies. 05 (03). Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  13. ↑ "Sufferings of the Believers in Turkistan and Caucasus". Bahá'í News (130): 2. October 1939.
  14. ↑ Momen, Moojan. "Russia". Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Bahá'í Library Online. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
  15. ↑ Universal House of Justice (1995). "Ridván 1995". Ridván Messages. Bahá'í Library Online. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  16. ↑ Gornall, Leslie (2004-07-28). "42°N 44°E". Degree Confluence Project. Degree Confluence Project. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  17. 1 2 Corley, Felix (2004-08-23). "GEORGIA: Religious freedom survey, August 2004". F18News.
  18. ↑ Corley, Felix (2008-09-24). "AZERBAIJAN: Religious freedom survey, September 2008". F18News.
  19. ↑ Bahá'í International Community (2009-02-22). "The Baku Regional Conference". Bahá'í World News Service.
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