From Compass DirectBorn on June 18 to a Christian family in northern Azerbaijan, three-month-old Ilya Eyvazov still has no official name. Local authorities in the town of Aliabad at first refused to issue a birth certificate when the babyÂ’s father, Novruz Eyvazov, tried to register his sonÂ’s birth on June 21.
“Impossible,” city administration officials told Novruz Eyvazov when they saw his son’s name was the Russian form of Elijah.
“They said it was because it was a Christian name,” said the Baptist church member. The father of five told Compass that he was not surprised by the difficulties because he had faced the same problem with his last two children. “God knows what he wants and we trust him for everything.”