Armenia
International Religious Freedom Report 2004
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law
specifies some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of
minority faiths, and there were some restrictions in practice. The
Armenian Apostolic Church, which has formal legal status as the
national church, enjoys some privileges not available to adherents of
other faiths.
There was no overall change in the status of respect for religious
freedom during the period covered by this report. According to
legislation passed in November 2003, the Law on Alternative Military
Service took effect on June 1, but had not been implemented by the end
of the period covered by this report. The law provides “conscientious
objectors” (after receiving the formal approval of a government panel)
the opportunity to serve in either noncombat military or civil service
duties instead of as conscripted military personnel. In June, the
Government again denied the Jehovah’s Witnesses application for formal
registration as a religious organization. The registrar’s office cited
technical problems with the application. Other denominations
occasionally report acts of discrimination, usually by mid-level or
lower level government officials.
The generally amicable relationship among religions in society
contributed to religious freedom; however, societal attitudes toward
some minority religions are ambivalent.
The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the
Government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights.
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has a total area of 11,496 square miles, and its
population is approximately 3 million.
The country is ethnically homogeneous, with approximately 98percent of
the population classified as ethnic Armenian. Approximately 90 percent
of citizens nominally belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an
Eastern Christian denomination whose spiritual center is located at
the cathedral and monastery of Etchmiadzin. Religious observance was
discouraged strongly in the Soviet era, leading to a sharp decline in
the number of active churches and priests, the closure of virtually
all monasteries, and the nearly complete absence of religious
education. As a result, the number of active religious practitioners
is relatively low, although many former atheists now identify
themselves with the national church.
For many citizens, Christian identity is an ethnic trait, with only a
loose connection to religious belief. Many Azeris left Armenia during
the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988-94, increasing Armenia’s
religious and ethnic homogeneity. The head of the Church, Catholicos
Garegin II (alternate spelling Karekin), was elected in 1999 at
Etchmiadzin with the participation of Armenian delegates from around
the world.
There are comparatively small, but in many cases growing, communities
of other faiths. The Government does not provide figures for religious
adherents, but the congregants themselves offered the following
estimates: Yezidi (a Kurdish religious/ethnic group which includes
elements derived from Zoroastrianism, Islam, and animism, with
approximately 30,000 to 40,000 nominal adherents); Catholic, both
Roman and Mekhitarist (Armenian Uniate) (approximately 180,000);
Pentecostal (approximately 25,000); Greek Orthodox (approximately
1,176); Jehovah’s Witnesses (approximately 7,500); Armenian
Evangelical Church (approximately 5,000); Baptist (approximately
2,000); unspecified “charismatic” Christian (approximately 3,000);
Seventh-day Adventist (800 to 900); the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Mormons)(1,500 to 2,000); Jewish (500 to 1,000),
and Baha’i (over 200). In addition, small Muslim, Hare Krishna, and
pagan communities exist in the country. Yezidis are concentrated
primarily in agricultural areas around Mount Aragats, northwest of
Yerevan. Armenian Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians are
concentrated in the northern region, while most Jews, Mormons, and
Baha’i are located in Yerevan. In Yerevan, there are approximately
1,000 Muslims, including Kurds, Iranians, and temporary residents from
the Middle East.
Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses continue their missionary work and
reported gains in membership during the period covered by this
report. Evangelical Christians and Mormons also sponsor missionary
programs in the country.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy Framework
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law
specifies some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of
faiths other than the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Constitution also
provides for freedom of conscience, including the right either to
believe or to adhere to atheism. The 1991 Law on Freedom of
Conscience, amended in 1997, establishes the separation of church and
state, but grants the Armenian Apostolic Church official status as the
national church.
As a result of extended negotiations between the Government and the
Armenian Apostolic Church, a memorandum was signed in 2000 that
provided for the two sides to negotiate a concordat. This was
scheduled to occur in time for the 1,700th anniversary celebrations in
2001 of the country’s conversion to Christianity; however,
disagreements in some areas precluded this and negotiations were in
progress at the end of the period covered by this report. The document
is expected to regulate relations between the two bodies, settle
disputes over ecclesiastical properties and real estate confiscated
during the Soviet period, and define the role of the Armenian
Apostolic Church in such fields as education, morality, and the media.
The law requires all religious denominations and organizations other
than the Armenian Apostolic Church to register in order to operate
without restrictions. A March 2002 cabinet decision abolished the
Council on Religious Affairs (CRA), and created a new office under the
Prime Minister to oversee religious affairs. A high-ranking official
from the former CRA was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Advisor on
Religious Affairs. In addition, the cabinet established the National
Minorities and Religious Affairs Department, which reports to the
Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. The function of registering religious
groups in Armenia was transferred to the Office of the State
Registrar, with the Advisor on Religious Affairs and the head of the
National Minorities and Religious Affairs Department holding
consultative roles in the registration process. After establishing the
new agency, the Government required all groups wishing registration to
reapply. To qualify for registration, petitioning organizations must
“be free from materialism and of a purely spiritual nature,” and must
subscribe to a doctrine based on “historically recognized holy
scriptures.” A religious organization must have at least 200 adult
members. Unregistered religious organizations may not publish
newspapers or magazines, rent meeting places, broadcast programs on
television or radio, or officially sponsor the visas of visitors. By
the end of the period covered by this report, the Government had
registered 55 religious organizations, some of which are individual
congregations from within the same denomination.
There is no formally operating mosque; however, Yerevan’s one
surviving 18th century mosque, which was restored with Iranian
funding, is open for regular Friday prayers. While its legal basis is
tenuous since it is not registered as a religious facility, the
Government does not create any obstacles for Muslims who wish to pray
there.
The law permits religious education in state schools. Government
personnel train selected teachers from each school to teach the
religious education curriculum. The beliefs of the Armenian Apostolic
Church form the basis of this curriculum. If requested by the school
principal, the Armenian Apostolic Church sends priests to teach
classes in religion and religious history in those schools. Students
may choose not to attend religious education classes. Many schools
teach the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church as part of
coursework on religion, covering global religions in elementary school
and the Armenian Apostolic Church in middle school. Other religious
groups are not allowed to provide religious instruction in schools,
although registered groups may do so in private homes to children of
their members.
The Government’s new Human Rights Ombudsman, together with the head of
the Department on National Minorities and Religious Affairs, met with
many religious minority organizations during the period covered by
this report.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
During the period covered by this report, most registered religious
groups reported no serious legal impediments to their
activities. However, members of faiths other than the Armenian
Apostolic Church are subject to some government restrictions. In
particular the 1991 law prohibits “proselytizing” (undefined in the
law), except by the Armenian Apostolic Church, and restricts
unregistered groups from publishing, broadcasting, or inviting
official visitors to the country.
In June, the Government again denied the application of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses for formal registration as a religious organization. The
registrars’ office cited technical problems with the application. The
Jehovah’s Witnesses expressed satisfaction that they were making
progress toward registration and plan to correct the technical
problems and resubmit their application in the near future.
According to the head of the National Minorities and Religious Affairs
Department, some minority religious groups includingthe Molokany and
some Yezidi groups, which might number in the hundreds, have not
sought registration. The only previously registered religious group
that was denied reregistration was the Hare Krishnas, whose membership
had dropped below the 200member threshold.
Although the law prohibits foreign funding for foreign-based churches,
the Government has not enforced this ban and considers it
unenforceable. Travel by religious personnel is not restricted in
practice. No action has been taken against missionaries. Religious
groups did not report any investigations of missionaries during the
period covered by this report.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
At the end of the period covered by this report, 23 members of
Jehovah’s Witnesses remained in prison and 3 in pretrial detention
charged with draft evasion or, if forcibly drafted, with desertion due
to refusal to serve; 43 members who had been serving terms were
released to house arrest after serving onethird of their
sentences. Representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses said that those
imprisoned were members of their community who had been called for
military service and went directly to police to turn themselves in
rather than waiting until induction to declare conscientious
objection. The Law on Alternative Military Service took effect on June
1, but the Government had not created implementing regulations by the
end of the reporting period. The law will allow conscientious
objectors to participate in an alternative civil service instead of
compulsory military duty. One alternative method would allow
conscientious objectors to serve in the army without carrying arms for
36 months, and another would allow them to do civil service for 42
months. Both options are substantially longer that the 2 years of
service required of those in the Army. Government officials have
stated that the law would be implemented by Fall 2004; however, the
Government had not formed a committee to design these regulations by
the end of the period covered by this report.
There are reports that hazing of new conscripts is more severe for
Yezidis and other minorities and that military and civilian security
officials’ treatment of members of Jehovah’s Witnesses is even
harsher, because their refusal to serve in the military is seen as a
threat to national security.
During the period covered by this report, members of Jehovah’s
Witnesses did not report experiencing difficulty renting meeting
places as they had reported in the past. Lack of local official visa
sponsorship means that Jehovah’s Witnesses visitors must pay for
tourist visas. In previous years, there were reports that government
officials seized Jehovah’s Witness publications at the border. Members
of Jehovah’s Witnesses reportedly are allowed to bring in small
quantities of printed materials for their own use.
The International Helsinki Federation reported that there have been
numerous allegations in recent years that members of nontraditional
religions, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been dismissed from
their jobs or physically attacked due to their faith. A representative
of the Jehovah’s Witnesses stated that the organization was not aware
of any of their members being dismissed from his or her job during the
period covered by this report.
Other than Jehovah’s Witnesses who were conscientious objectors, there
were no reports of religious prisoners or detainees.
Forced Religious Conversion
There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of
minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from
the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be
returned to the United States.
Abuses by Terrorist Organizations
There were no reported abuses targeted at specific religions by
terrorist organizations during the period covered by this report.
Section III. Societal Attitudes
The generally amicable relationship among religions in society
contributed to religious freedom; however, societal attitudes toward
some minority religions are ambivalent.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is a member of the World Council of
Churches and, despite doctrinal differences, has friendly official
relations with many major Christian denominations, including the
Eastern Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican
Church, and major Protestant churches. In 2001, the Armenian Apostolic
Church celebrated the 1,700th anniversary of the official conversion
of Armenia to Christianity.
Suppressed through 70 years of Soviet rule, the Armenian Apostolic
Church has neither the trained priests nor the material resources to
fill immediately the spiritual void created by the demise of Communist
ideology. Nontraditional religious organizations are viewed with
suspicion, and foreignbased denominations operate cautiously for fear
of being seen as a threat by the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Societal attitudes toward most minority religions are ambivalent. Many
citizens are not religiously observant, but the link between religion
and Armenian ethnicity is strong. As a result of the Karabakh conflict
with Azerbaijan, most of the country’s Azeri population, who were
almost all Muslim, left the country. The few Muslims remaining in the
country keep a low profile, despite generally amicable relations
between the Government and Iran.
There was no officially sponsored violence reported against minority
religious groups during the period. Yezidi children on occasion
reported hazing by teachers and classmates. Some observers reported
increasingly unfavorable attitudes toward members of Jehovah’s
Witnesses among the general population, both because they are seen as
“unpatriotic” for refusing military service and because of a
widespread but unsubstantiated belief that they pay money to the
desperately poor for conversions. The press reported a number of
complaints lodged by citizens against members of Jehovah’s Witnesses
for alleged illegal proselytizing. Representatives of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses reported a few cases during the year in which the Procurator
General’s office sent official warnings to individual members
regarding their proselytizing activities, and the group was at times
the focus of verbal religious attacks and hostile preaching by some
Armenian Apostolic Church clerics. In September 2003, teenagers in the
town of Aparan physically assaulted four Jehovah’s
Witnesses. According to a Helsinki Committee report citing eye-witness
accounts, a local priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church appeared to
have encouraged the attack.
Although it is difficult to document, it is likely that there is some
informal societal discrimination in employment against members of
certain minority religious groups.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the
Government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights. The
U.S. Ambassador and Embassy officials maintain close contact with the
Catholicos at Etchmiadzin and with leaders of other major religious
and ecumenical groups in the country. During the period covered by
this report, Embassy officials met with the Military Prosecutor to
discuss, among other topics, hazing of minority conscripts and the
status of Jehovah’s Witnesses, met with government officials to
discuss the proposed law on alternative military service,and continued
to meet with government officials to urge that progress be made toward
registering Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Embassy also maintains regular
contact with traveling regional representatives of foreign-based
religious groups such as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and
raises their concerns with the Government. Embassy officials closely
monitor trials related to issues of religious freedom and take an
active role in policy forums and nongovernmental organization
roundtables regarding religious freedom.
During the reporting period, the U.S. Mission hosted several
roundtable meetings and receptions in honor of U.S. representatives of
religious organizations. Leaders of local minority religious groups
were regularly welcomed at these events.
Released on September 15, 2004