Human rights defenders report persecution of Church in Armenia

Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Vagharshapat, Armenia. Photo: klook

On May 4, 2026, the human rights organization Christian Solidarity International (CSI) published a report titled “The Church Under Siege,” accusing the Armenian government of persecuting the national Church on a scale unprecedented since Soviet rule. In the document, experts recorded instances of gross state interference in the internal life of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) and violations of religious freedom.

The report’s author, international lawyer and historian Peter Flook, said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is seeking to fully neutralize the Church as an independent source of criticism and bring it under state control.

According to the expert, the authorities are using the full repressive apparatus to this end: security forces have arrested one third of all the country’s archbishops, while travel bans have been imposed on Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and other hierarchs.

Human rights defenders paid particular attention to the fate of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who has been in prison for a ninth month on charges of attempting to seize power. CSI stressed that the authorities are using the security services to wiretap clerics and even censor sacred rites, pressuring priests to stop commemorating the Catholicos during the Liturgy.

Representatives of the International Observatory for Human Rights and Democracy in Armenia (IODA) and Human Rights Watch also expressed concern over the “politicization of justice” and the use of Armenia’s judicial system.

Human rights defenders noted that the ruling party had included provisions on the forced “reform” of the Church and the replacement of its leadership in its election manifesto, which directly violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

The report also describes cases of physical violence against believers, including an incident at St. Anna Church on Palm Sunday, when the prime minister’s bodyguards struck 18-year-old parishioner David Minasyan.

Human rights defenders called on the United States and the European Union to make the protection of believers’ rights a condition for further cooperation with Yerevan and demanded the immediate release of all church “prisoners of conscience.”

As the UOJ previously reported, the Armenian Church condemned Azerbaijan’s destruction of a church in Karabakh.

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