STOP ANTI-SEMANTIC ATTACKS ON TER-PETROSSIAN’S WIFE
A1+
[12:07 pm] 22 September, 2008
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law
places some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of
minority religious groups.
The Government generally did not enforce existing legal restrictions
on religious freedom. There was no change in the status of respect
for religious freedom by the Government during the reporting
period. Jehovah’s Witnesses continued to report that judges sentenced
them to longer prison terms for evasion of alternative service than in
the past, although the sentences were within the range allowed by law.
There were reports of societal abuses and discrimination based on
religious affiliation, belief, or practice.
The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government
as part of its overall policy to promote human rights.
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has an area of 11,500 square miles and a population of
3.2 million. Approximately 98 percent of the population is ethnic
Armenian. The link between Armenian ethnicity and the Armenian Church
is strong. An estimated 90 percent of citizens nominally belong to the
Armenian Church, one of six ancient autocephalous Eastern churches
with its spiritual center (Mother See) located at the Etchmiadzin
cathedral and monastery near the capital of Yerevan.
There are small communities of other religious groups. There was
no reliable census data on religious minorities, and estimates from
congregants varied significantly. These groups constitute less than 5
percent of the population and include Roman Catholics, Armenian Uniate
(Mekhitarist) Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Armenian Evangelical
Christians, Molokans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists,
various groups of charismatic Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, members
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Yezidis
(non-Muslim Kurds who practice Yezidism), Jews, Sunni Muslim Kurds,
Shi’ite Muslims, Baha’is, and others. Yezidis are concentrated
primarily in agricultural areas around Mount Aragats, northwest of
Yerevan. Armenian Catholics live mainly in the north, while most Jews,
Mormons, Baha’is, and Orthodox Christians reside in Yerevan, along
with a small community of mostly Shi’ite Muslims, including Iranians,
and temporary residents from the Middle East.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy Framework
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion and the right
to practice, choose, or change religious belief. Nevertheless,
it recognizes "the exclusive mission of the Armenian Church as a
national church in the spiritual life, development of the national
culture, and preservation of the national identity of the people of
Armenia." The Constitution and the Law on Freedom of Conscience and
Religious Organizations establish the separation of church and state
but grant the Armenian Church official status as the national church.
The April 2007 Law on the Relations of the Republic of Armenia and
the Armenian Church regulates the special relations between the state
and the Armenian Church and grants certain privileges to the Armenian
Church that are not available to other religious groups. It makes the
Armenian Church’s marriage rite legally binding, but the supporting
legal acts to enforce this were not in place at the end of the period
covered by this report. The law also allows the Armenian Church to
have permanent representatives in hospitals, orphanages, boarding
schools, military units, and all places of detentions, while the Law
on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations permits other
religious organizations to have representatives in these places on
demand only. In general, the Law on the Relations of the Republic
of Armenia and the Armenian Church formally recognizes the moral
as well as ethnic role that the Armenian Church plays in society,
as most citizens see it as an integral part of national identity,
history, and cultural heritage.
The Government observes January 6, the day on which the Armenian
Church celebrates Christmas, as a national holiday.
The law does not mandate registration of nongovernmental organizations,
including religious groups; however, only registered organizations have
legal status. Only registered groups may publish more than one thousand
copies of newspapers or magazines, rent meeting places, broadcast
programs on television or radio, or officially sponsor the visas
of visitors, although there is no prohibition on individual members
doing so. To qualify for registration, religious organizations must "be
free from materialism and of a purely spiritual nature," have at least
200 adult members, and subscribe to a doctrine based on "historically
recognized holy scriptures." The registration requirements do not refer
to the religious organizations of national minorities. The Office of
the State Registrar registers religious entities. The Department of
Religious Affairs and National Minorities oversees religious affairs
and performs a consultative role in the registration process.
There were no reports of the Government refusing registration to
religious groups that qualified for registration under the law.
The Law on Alternative Service allows conscientious objectors–subject
to government panel approval–to perform either noncombatant military
or labor service duties rather than serve as combat-trained military
personnel. The law took effect in 2004 and applies to subsequent
draftees and those serving prison terms for draft evasion. A January
2006 amendment to the Criminal Code criminalizes evasion of alternative
labor service. However, conscientious objectors continued to maintain
that military control of the alternative labor service amounted to
unacceptable military service.
The Law on Education mandates that public schools offer a secular
education. Only personnel authorized and trained by the Government
may teach in public schools. Classes in religious history are part
of the public school curriculum and are taught by public school
teachers. The history of the Armenian Church is the basis of this
curriculum; many schools teach about world religions in elementary
school and the history of the Armenian Church in middle school. All
religious organizations may establish groups for religious instruction
to train their members, utilizing facilities belonging to or set aside
for them. The law grants the Armenian Church the right to organize
voluntary religious classes in state education institutions using
the facilities and resources of those institutions.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
The Government generally did not enforce existing legal restrictions
on religious freedom. There was no change in the status of respect
for religious freedom by the Government during the period covered by
this report.
The Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations prohibits
but does not define "proselytizing." The prohibition applies to all
groups, including the Armenian Church. Most registered religious
groups reported no significant legal impediments to their activities
during the reporting period.
Although the law prohibits foreign funding of foreign-based
denominations, the Government did not enforce the ban.
In May and June 2008, the progovernment Hayots Ashkhar and Golos
Armenii daily newspapers published anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic
accusations against former president and current opposition leader
Levon Ter-Petrossian. Local observers viewed the inflammatory articles
as attempts to portray the opposition leader as a traitor to the
country and stir up anti-Semitic sentiment in a country traditionally
known for its welcoming attitude toward Jews.
On June 1, 2008, the state-operated H1 public television channel
broadcast a 10-minute segment on its weekly 360 Degrees news magazine
program, the sole focus of which appeared to be to disparage and
undermine the opposition. The footage incorporated the anti-Semitic
and anti-Masonic attacks by Hayots Ashkhar and Golos Armenii.
On February 27, 2008, H1’s news program presented coverage of a
post-presidential election opposition rally, focusing primarily on
an Israeli flag–one of many nations’ flags in the crowd–with the
intention of vilifying Ter-Petrossian, whose wife is Jewish.
On May 15, 2008, a judge from Yerevan’s Shengavit community general
jurisdiction court invalidated the decision of the Guardianship
Board of Yerevan Davitashen community recommending that a member of
Jehovah’s Witnesses be deprived of her parental rights because of
her religious affiliation.
In April 2008 Jehovah’s Witnesses cleared shipments of religious
literature that in March 2007 customs officials had evaluated at a
significantly higher rate than the group expected by paying the full
price and took their case to the administrative court. At the end of
the reporting period, the court had not made a decision. Conscientious
objectors continued to face problems in obtaining necessary documents
from the military commissariat.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
Jehovah’s Witnesses complained that, compared with the prior reporting
period, the courts continued to hand down longer sentences for evasion
of alternative service. Between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, of
the 36 Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced, 19 received 30-month sentences
and 3 received 36-month sentences, the maximum allowed by law. The
remaining 14 received prison terms ranging between 22 and 27 months.
According to Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders in Yerevan, at the end of the
reporting period, 78 of their members remained in prison for refusal to
perform military service or alternative labor service on conscientious
and religious grounds. Representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses stated
that all of the prisoners had been given the opportunity to serve
an alternative to military service rather than prison time but had
refused because the military continued to retain administrative control
over the alternative service. Other than Jehovah’s Witnesses who were
conscientious objectors, there were no reports of religious prisoners
or detainees in the country.
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.
Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination
There were reports of societal abuses based on religious affiliation,
belief, or practice. Societal attitudes toward most minority religious
groups were ambivalent. While many citizens are not religiously
observant, the link between Armenian ethnicity and the Armenian Church
is strong.
According to some observers, the general population expressed
negative attitudes about minority religious groups, especially
Jehovah’s Witnesses, because of the latter’s refusal to serve in
the military, the group’s little-understood proselytizing practices,
and a widespread but unsubstantiated belief that Jehovah’s Witnesses
pay the desperately poor to convert. Minority religious groups at
times continued to be targets of hostile sermons by Armenian Church
clerics, and members of minority religious groups experienced societal
discrimination and intolerance.
On May 5, 2008, a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses filed a complaint
with the police, claiming that a man assaulted her and a fellow
member when she offered to engage him in Bible study. By the end of
the reporting period, the police had not acted on the complaint.
On February 21, 2008, Jehovah’s Witnesses reported that an alleged
Armenian Apostolic priest, Nver Melkonyan, physically assaulted a
member of their group in Sisian after the member offered to engage
in Bible study with him. The member of Jehovah’s Witnesses who was
attacked complained to the police, Prosecutor General, and Ombudsman,
requesting that the Government prosecute the assailant. The police
refused to initiate a criminal case, since Melkonyan refuted the
assault. Jehovah’s Witnesses reported that in July 2007 Melkonyan
had on different occasions attacked two other Jehovah’s Witnesses,
who did not file official complaints. The Armenian Church denied that
Melkonyan had any clerical affiliation with it.
On July 31, 2007, in Yerevan, an off-duty police major and his brother
allegedly beat a man who was a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The
man and his wife, who was a witness to the attack, filed complaints
with the police, Prosecutor’s Office, and human rights defender. The
police reportedly closed the case due to lack of evidence. Throughout
the reporting period, a group called One Nation Party placed posters
in Yerevan that denounced Jehovah’s Witnesses and called upon persons
to be aware of sects.
In the days prior to the February 2008 presidential election,
an anonymous antiopposition organization distributed a digital
video disk in Yerevan that used anti-Semitic claims, epithets, and
innuendo against Ter-Petrossian, the leading opposition candidate. The
allegations cast aspersions on the candidate’s Jewish wife and alleged
that the candidate was collaborating with the Israeli Government
and others in a "Zionist plot" to undermine the state. Some of the
contents of the digital video disk were shown on a private television
channel that has a national viewing audience. On December 17, 2007,
Jewish community members discovered a small swastika drawn on the
Hebrew side of the 14-month-old Joint Tragedies Memorial. The Jewish
community dismissed the incident as a random act.
Media outlets continued to label religious groups other than the
Armenian Church as "sects" in their broadcasting and transmitted
negative programs about them. Various television stations broadcast
discussions in which representatives of the Armenian Church and/or
other participants labeled religious minority groups as enemies of
the state and national unity.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy T
he U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as
part of its overall policy to promote human rights. During the period
covered by this report, the U.S. Government emphasized to authorities
that continued eligibility for the Millennium Challenge Compact
remained contingent upon the Government’s performance in meeting
good governance indicators, which include standards of respect for
religious freedom.
U.S. embassy officials maintained close contact with the Catholicos
(primate of the Armenian Church) at Etchmiadzin and with leaders of
other religious and ecumenical groups in the country. The Embassy
maintained regular contact with resident and visiting regional
representatives of foreign-based religious groups and raised their
concerns with the Government when necessary. U.S. officials also
publicly condemned, and urged the Government to promptly end, the
anti-Semitic attacks on Ter-Petrossian and his wife by the state-run
H1 public television channel.