ARMENIA REGISTERS JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
ArmenPress
Oct 13 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 13, ARMENPRESS: Armenian justice minister David
Harutunian said today that Jehovah’s Witnesses organization was
officially registered after it brought its statutes in line with
law requirements.
In response to fears that after registration the organization, viewed
by many Armenians with suspicion, will continue activities running
counter to law, the minister said registration is the first stage
and it does not give it right to breach laws. “If the organization
violates laws later all measures stipulated by legislation will be
applied against it,” he said. The minister said the organization had
been denied registration as its statutes and `forms of preaching’
were not in conformity with Armenia’s law on religious organizations.
The organization registration certificate was issued by the state
registry of legal entities on 8 October and was signed by the
deputy justice minister Tigran Mukuchian. The registration covers
the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activity across the whole of the country.
Registering the Jehovah’s Witnesses was a key demand of the Council
of Europe.