By Felix Corley
A Molokan Christian from Dilijan in north-eastern Armenia, Ivan Mikhailov, is on trial again for refusing military service on grounds of conscience. Now 27, he was refused alternative civilian service in 2018. He was then sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but this was overturned on appeal. In 2025, Tavush Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office brought a new case against him and placed him under travel restrictions. Prosecutors handed the case to Tavush Region First Instance Court in July 2025, but the court has repeatedly postponed hearings for various reasons.
Public prosecutor Vahagn Vardanyan is leading the prosecution case. Forum 18 was unable to reach him as officials did not answer the phone at Tavush Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office each time Forum 18 called (see below).
Molokans are a traditionally pacifist Christian religious community which emerged in the 18th century.
Council of Churches Baptist Davit Nazaretyan, now 22, is serving a 2-year jail term after the Alternative Service Commission rejected his application in January 2023. He is due to complete his sentence in August 2026. Officials refused to grant him amnesty in August 2025 when he had completed half his jail term. A case has been lodged on his behalf to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (see below).
“We don’t know if Davit will be called up again after the end of his sentence on 20 August,” Pastor Mikhail Shubin told Forum 18. “We asked, but have had no answer” (see below).
The government’s Alternative Service Commission refuses to grant alternative civilian service to conscientious objectors who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses, such as Molokans and Baptists. Vardan Astsatryan of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs refused to explain to Forum 18 why this discrimination exists (see below).
In January 2026, the Alternative Service Commission rejected the application from a young man (who is also not a Jehovah’s Witness) who is unable to perform military service on grounds of conscience. The young man reluctantly accepted service in the military without weapons and without swearing the military oath. His service is to last 30 months rather than the 18 months of military service. “He wanted not to be in the army at all,” a person close to him told Forum 18. “Others also want alternative civilian service, but in practice officials don’t offer it” (see below).
The office of the Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan did not respond to Forum 18’s questions about what she and her office might have done to protect the rights of those who cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience (see below).
Jailing conscientious objectors to military service and not respecting their right to a genuinely civilian alternative service violates Armenia’s legally-binding international human rights obligations (see below).
Human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation calls for reforms to the Alternative Service Commission. “I would like to see a different type of Commission to discuss these issues, not an inter-governmental body, but a more professional body,” she told Form 18. “The Commission should be more transparent over how decisions are taken, because we couldn’t find much information about who was granted this alternative civilian service and who not” (see below).
In 2026 the length of military service was reduced from 24 months to 18 months. The length of alternative military service (30 months) and alternative civilian service (36 months) have not been reduced, despite Armenia’s international human rights obligation to ensure that such service is not punitive in length (see below).
“We are aware that that individual lawyers have directed inquiries to the relevant authorities, including the Defence Ministry, the Justice Ministry, and Parliament’s Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 from Yerevan. “However, no official response or indication of any adjustment to the duration of alternative civilian service has been received to date” (see below).
Mikhailov: First conviction for conscientious objection overturned
Conscientious objector Ivan Nikolai Mikhailov (born 28 July 1998), a Molokan from the north-eastern town of Dilijan, was refused alternative civilian service. The rejection order, signed by the Justice Minister on 15 August 2018, notes that “the applicant failed to justify that his duty to perform mandatory military service is in serious and weighty conflict with his conscience or with his deep and genuine religious faith or other beliefs”.
Prosecutors then brought a criminal case against Mikhailov for evasion of military service. Tavush Regional Court handed him a two-year jail term on 11 November 2019. On 11 February 2021, the Criminal Court of Appeal rejected Mikhailov’s first appeal.
However, on 5 April 2023, the Cassation Court overturned the conviction (meaning that Mikhailov was never sent to prison as the sentence never came into force). It sent his case back to Tavush Regional Court for a new trial. On 6 October 2023, a Judge closed the criminal case because of the statute of limitations. The Judge finally removed the restrictions on Mikhailov’s movements.
Mikhailov: Second case for conscientious objection to military service
In 2025, Tavush Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office brought a new case against Mikhailov under Criminal Code Article 461, Part 1 (“Avoidance of mandatory military or alternative service or conscription”). It accused him of failing to appear for the 2024 winter call-up. Mikhailov was once again placed under a travel ban.
On 25 July 2025, Tavush Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office sent the new criminal case against Mikhailov to Tavush Region First Instance Court, according to court records. The case was assigned to Judge Narek Badalyan. Public prosecutor Vahagn Vardanyan led the prosecution case, while lawyer Rafik Melkonyan defended Mikhailov.
Officials did not answer the phone at Tavush Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office each time Forum 18 called on 21 and 22 May 2026.
The Court held a preliminary hearing in Mikhailov’s case on 11 August 2025. However, the hearing was postponed as the parties to the case failed to appear. The hearing was rescheduled for 8 September 2025 but did not take place as the Judge was taking part in a training course. The Judge was also not available for the next scheduled hearing on 11 November 2025.
The 8 December 2025 hearing did not take place at the request of the Prosecutor. The 19 January 2026 hearing was postponed at the request both of the Prosecutor and the defence lawyer. Judge Badalyan was unable to attend the 6 March 2026 hearing and it did not take place. The 13 May hearing was postponed as defence lawyer M. Manukyan was unable to attend.
The next hearing has now been set for 17 July, nearly a year after the case first reached the court. Mikhailov has remained under a travel ban since the case against him was launched.
Nazaretyan: “Jesus Christ teaches us not to kill”
Davit Tigrani Nazaretyan (born 23 July 2003) lives in the capital Yerevan and is a member of a Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Arinj, a town next to Yerevan. The congregation – which chooses not to seek state registration – is led by Pastor Mikhail Shubin.
“I am a Christian and I read the Bible,” Nazaretyan told Forum 18 from Yerevan in November 2023. “Jesus Christ teaches us not to kill and he followed this also. We have to love one another, even our enemies, and not kill people.” He added that Jesus Christ also instructed his followers not to swear oaths. “If I was given alternative civilian service now, I would do it.”
The Alternative Service Commission rejected Nazaretyan’s application in January 2023. Vardan Astsatryan of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs, who is part of the Alternative Service Commission, claimed to Forum 18 in February 2024 that the Commission rejected Nazaretyan’s application as it had not been convinced by his case. “Why couldn’t he present his views convincingly?”
Forum 18 told Astsatryan that in November 2023, Nazaretyan had clearly and logically explained his conscientious reasons why he could not serve in the military and his readiness to perform alternative civilian service. Yet Astsatryan claimed again that Nazaretyan had not been able to explain this to the Commission.
On 25 October 2023, Yerevan’s Kentron District Court handed the then 20-year-old a two-year jail term under Criminal Code Article 461, Part 1 (“Avoidance of mandatory military or alternative service or conscription”).
On 7 February 2024, a panel of three judges at Yerevan’s Criminal Court of Appeal rejected Nazaretyan’s first appeal.
On 10 July 2024, without a hearing, the Cassation Court rejected Nazaretyan’s final appeal against his two-year jail term. He received the Cassation Court’s rejection of his appeal on 16 July 2024, one week before his 21st birthday. “I am very disappointed by this decision,” human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation told Forum 18 after his final appeal was rejected.
Nazaretyan: Two-year jail term to end in August 2026
Police arrived on the morning of 20 August 2024 at the home in Yerevan of Baptist conscientious objector Davit Nazaretyan. They arrested him and took him initially to Nubarashen prison in southern Yerevan to begin his two-year jail term, a month after the Cassation Court rejected his final appeal. He was able to take his Bible with him, Pastor Shubin said.
“Unfortunately we knew this would happen,” Vardan Astsatryan of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs told Forum 18 in August 2024. “The law gives two possibilities – go to the army or, unfortunately, jail.” (The law also gives the possibility of alternative civilian service, which Nazaretyan applied for unsuccessfully.)
Astsatryan is a member of the government’s Alternative Service Commission which rejected Nazaretyan’s alternative service application.
“We offered him alternative service within the army without weapons,” Astsatryan insisted. “Had I found that his conscience was hurt through this [serving in the military], I would have helped him. But I didn’t see it. The six members of the Commission didn’t see it. We asked him many questions and gave him the chance to answer.”
In early September 2024, prison authorities transferred Nazaretyan to Sevan open prison, where conditions are better than in Nubarashen prison. On arrival at Sevan prison, he was placed in quarantine for two weeks.
Nazaretyan’s prison address:
Armenia
Kotayk marz
2302, Hrazdan
Sevan Road
Prison
Officials refused Nazaretyan amnesty in August 2025 after he had served half his sentence.
“We don’t know if Davit will be called up again after the end of his sentence on 20 August,” Pastor Shubin told Forum 18 on 19 May 2026. “We asked, but have had no answer.”
Nazaretyan: Appeal to European Court of Human Rights
Anna Maralyan of Rights Centre, an Armenian non-governmental organisation, brought a case on Davit Nazaretyan’s behalf to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. The Court registered the case (Application No. 36510/24) on 7 November 2024.
“It will not make much change to Davit’s case because the Strasbourg court’s decisions are released quite late, but it might be a precedent,” the Eurasia Partnership Foundation told Forum 18 in August 2024, as the application to the ECtHR was bring prepared.
The Court has issued many rulings in favour of individuals – including from Armenia – who were denied the right not to serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience (see below).
“The case has been registered, but not communicated yet,” Maralyan told Forum 18 from Strasbourg on 21 May 2026.
Other conscientious objectors
Davit Nazaretyan and Ivan Mikhailov are the only conscientious objectors known to be currently jailed or facing jail under Criminal Code Article 461, Part 1 (“Avoidance of mandatory military or alternative service or conscription”).
At least two Molokans (including Mikhailov) have faced criminal prosecution in recent years for refusing to serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience.
The last known previously-convicted conscientious objector, Maksim Mikhaili Telegin (born 15 November 1998), a Molokan from Yerevan who had been refused alternative civilian service in 2016, was jailed for one year at Yerevan City Court on 23 March 2021. He was taken into custody to begin his prison term on 10 May 2021, but was freed early from his jail term in August 2021 after an amnesty reduced his prison term by nine months.
Does Human Rights Defender defend human rights?
Officials at the office of the Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan told Forum 18 in July 2024 that it could not speak to her directly, citing “procedural rules”.
On 21 May 2026, Forum 18 wrote to the office of Human Rights Defender Manasyan, pointing to the cases of conscientious objectors Davit Nazaretyan and Ivan Mikhailov and the conscientious objector refused alternative civilian service in January 2026. Forum 18 asked:
– What she and her office have done to defend the right not to serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience in accordance with the law;
– What she has done and is doing now to protect conscientious objectors from punishment for trying to exercise this right.
Forum 18 also asked Manasyan’s office what are the “daily activities” to protect the right not to serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience it wrote to Forum 18 about in February 2024.
Forum 18 had received no response from the Human Rights Defender’s office by the end of the working day in Yerevan of 22 May 2026.
The Human Rights Defender’s office had claimed to Forum 18 in February 2024 that it conducts “daily activities” to find solutions to “issues related to alternative service”.
In its reply, the Human Rights Defender’s office did not specify what the claimed “daily activities” were. “The Human Rights Defender conducts discussions and cooperates with the competent state authorities related to the issues of alternative military service,” her office told Forum 18. “Regarding written or oral applications addressed to the Defender, appropriate actions are carried out within the scope of the Defender’s powers, which are summarised in the Annual Report or other reports of the Human Rights Defender.”
Asked what action (if any) Human Rights Defender Manasyan would take to defend the rights of conscientious objector Davit Nazaretyan after the Cassation Court rejected his final appeal against his two-year jail term, her office noted that no one had appealed to her over Nazaretyan’s case. Her office claimed it had conducted research into his case, and found that he had been sentenced to a jail term and banned from leaving the country while appeals were pending. Her office did not appear to know that the Cassation Court had already rejected his final appeal.
The Human Rights Defender’s office also did not explain what, if any, action it is taking to end Armenia’s repeated violations of its legally-binding international human rights obligations by jailing conscientious objectors to military service and not respecting their right to a genuinely civilian alternative service.
The Human Rights Defender’s office also insisted that Manasyan “refers to the above-mentioned issues from systemic perspective, outlines the importance of the proper realisation of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion”. It claimed that she is “also conducting analysis of the mentioned issues”.
International standards
The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee has stated in its General Comment 22 that conscientious objection to military service comes under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 18 (“Freedom of thought, conscience and religion”). General Comment 22 notes that if a religion or belief is official or followed by a majority of the population this “shall not result in any impairment of the enjoyment of any of the rights under the Covenant .. nor in any discrimination against adherents to other religions or non-believers.”
In relation to conscientious objection to military service, General Comment 22 also states among other things: “there shall be no differentiation among conscientious objectors on the basis of the nature of their particular beliefs; likewise, there shall be no discrimination against conscientious objectors because they have failed to perform military service.”
This has been reinforced by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recognising “the right of everyone to have conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. The OHCHR has also noted in its Conscientious Objection to Military Service guidethat ICCPR Article 18 is “a non-derogable right .. even during times of a public emergency threatening the life of the nation”.
In 2022 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated (WGAD-HRC50) that “the right to conscientious objection to military service is part of the absolutely protected right to hold a belief under article 18 (1) of the Covenant, which cannot be restricted by States”. The Working Group also stated: “States should refrain from imprisoning individuals solely on the basis of their conscientious objection to military service, and should release those that have been so imprisoned.”
Various judgments (including against Armenia) of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg have also defined states’ obligations to respect and implement the right to conscientious objection to military service, as part of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
Military service, alternative civilian service
All Armenian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are subject to military conscription. Call-ups take place twice a year, and deferments of service are available in strictly limited circumstances. Military service was generally of 24 months. Parliament approved an amendment to the Military Service Law on 16 December 2025, reducing the service term for future conscripts from 1 January 2026 to 18 months. President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed this into law on 19 December 2025.
Those subject to conscription who object to military service with weapons can legally apply for either:
– alternative military service in the armed forces without weapons, having sworn the military oath. This lasts for 30 months;
– or for alternative civilian service, which is not within or controlled by the armed forces and does not involve swearing the military oath. This lasts for 36 months.
Conscientious objectors who are refused alternative civilian service and who refuse to do alternative military service can be prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 461, Part 1 (“Avoidance of mandatory military or alternative service or conscription”). This carries a jail term of two to five years.
For many years, Armenia jailed everyone unable to perform military service on grounds of conscience, despite a commitment to the Council of Europe to introduce a civilian alternative to military service by January 2004. In May 2013, amendments to the 2003 Alternative Service Law and to the 2003 Law on Implementing the Criminal Code were passed, and a fully civilian alternative service was created. By November 2013, the authorities had freed all the then-jailed conscientious objectors. All were Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Alternative Service Commission
Young men’s applications to be allowed to do alternative civilian service are considered by the Alternative Service Commission. This is a state body chaired by a Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure (currently Avetik Darbinyan), and made up of deputy ministers from five other ministries, as well as Vardan Astsatryan of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs.
The Alternative Service Commission meets twice a year, typically considering the cases of about 20 applicants at each six-monthly session. Applicants can be accompanied by a lawyer. The Commission appears to seek information on applicants before the sessions, including by looking at their social media accounts.
After each session, the Commission issues decisions, listing which applicants have been accepted and which rejected. The Justice Ministry published such decisions on its website in 2018 and 2019. Later decisions do not appear to be public.
Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 in February 2024 that their young men do not have problems opting for alternative civilian service. Since 2013, hundreds of their young men have undertaken alternative civilian service.
However, applications for alternative civilian service from conscientious objectors who are followers of other beliefs are only rarely accepted. Molokans, for example, are a traditionally pacifist Christian religious community which emerged in the 18th century. Like Jehovah’s Witness young men before 2013, Molokan young men were also jailed before Alternative Civilian Service was introduced.
As noted above, Molokan and Baptist conscientious objectors to military service still – against Armenia’s legally-binding international human rights obligations – risk being jailed for their beliefs.
A typical rejection order signed by the Justice Minister (for example in the case of Molokan conscientious objector Ivan Mikhailov in August 2018 – see above) notes that “the applicant failed to justify that his duty to perform mandatory military service is in serious and weighty conflict with his conscience or with his deep and genuine religious faith or other beliefs”.
“The Commission does not give alternative service to Molokans,” a member of the Molokan community told Forum 18 from Yerevan in July 2024. “The last Molokan to be granted alternative service was in about 2015.”
“All are equal before the law”?
The Alternative Service Commission held sessions in January 2026 to consider applications from young men for alternative civilian service. Vardan Astsatryan of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs insists that “all can be assigned alternative service if they can confirm what their beliefs are – they just need to present their views”.
Astsatryan refused to say why no applicants other than Jehovah’s Witnesses appear to be able to undertake alternative civilian service. “All are equal before the law,” he claimed to Forum 18 on 21 May.
From January to May 2026, 11 young Jehovah’s Witnesses applied to the Alternative Service Commission. “They are currently successfully serving in alternative civilian service,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 22 May.
However, Astsatryan refused to say how many applicants the Commission considered in January 2026. “One person was refused, if I remember rightly,” he told Forum 18. He refused to give any further details.
Forum 18 asked the Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Ministry in writing on 21 May:
– How many young men applied to the Commission to its hearings held in 2026;
– Of these applications, how many young men were approved to undertake alternative civilian service and how many were rejected.
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Yerevan of 22 May 2026.
January 2026: Commission rejects alternative service application
Young men whose alternative civilian service application is rejected by the Alternative Service Commission are forced to choose between either being prosecuted and possibly jailed (like Davit Nazaretyan and Ivan Mikhailov), or doing a form of military service. Such young men are normally forced to serve in the military.
The Commission rejected the application of a young man (who is not a Jehovah’s Witness) at its sessions in January 2026. Instead of offering him alternative civilian service in line with his conscientious objections, they offered him a non-military role within the army, as a cook or a driver. They said he could serve without weapons but service would last 30 months rather than the 18 months of military service. The young man reluctantly agreed.
The army then took the young man into its ranks. He is currently serving without weapons. Instead of the military oath, to which the young man objected on grounds of conscience, the army devised a special promise for him, someone close to him told Forum 18.
“He wanted not to be in the army at all,” the person close to him told Forum 18. “Others also want alternative civilian service, but in practice officials don’t offer it.”
“A compromise not in accordance with the law”
Such service within the military without weapons and without swearing the military oath is not, under Armenia’s legally-binding international human rights obligations, an adequate way of allowing conscientious objectors to military service to exercise their right to a genuinely civilian alternative service.
“Most of our young men therefore have to serve in the military, though without weapons and without swearing the oath,” the Molokan told Forum 18 in 2024. “They don’t complain, but many would undertake alternative civilian service if they could.” The Molokan noted that allowing those who object to serving with weapons and swearing the oath to serve without either is “a compromise not in accordance with the [Armenian] law”.
The Molokan added that on some occasions, those who had applied for alternative civilian service would be found not to be medically fit for military service. “In those cases they would be given a deferment for five years. We had once such case a month ago.” Human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan described such instances to Forum 18 in 2024 as “a quick fix”.
Some applicants given second chance, others not
The Alternative Service Commission approves applications from Jehovah’s Witness young men who can explain clearly their objection to serving in the military. Some Jehovah’s Witness young men, however, are not able to make their case clearly, an individual close to the process told Forum 18 in 2024.
These Jehovah’s Witness young men then come back to the Alternative Service Commission six months later. Almost all are then able to present their case to be exempted from military service on conscientious grounds clearly and the Commission grants them alternative service.
Molokans and Baptists whose applications are rejected are not allowed to present their case to the Alternative Service Commission a second time. “The Commission issues the decision once and for all,” a Molokan told Forum 18 in 2024. “Further applications are rejected without being considered.”
“Unfortunately, nothing has really changed”
“Unfortunately, nothing has really changed” since the jailing of Davit Nazaretyan in August 2024, says human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. She has long worked on freedom of religion or belief issues, including the right not to perform military service on grounds of conscience.
Sargsyan calls for reforms to the Alternative Service Commission. “I would like to see a different type of Commission to discuss these issues, not an inter-governmental body, but a more professional body,” she told Form 18 from Yerevan on 21 May 2026.
“The Commission should be more transparent over how decisions are taken, because we couldn’t find much information about who was granted this alternative civilian service and who not,” Sargsyan added. “There should be a better discussion around the decision-making procedures, how the Commission is composed, and how those decisions are made.”
No reduction in alternative civilian service length
Following the reduction from 1 January 2026 of the length of military service from 24 months to 18 months (see above), no moves appear to have yet been enacted to reduce the length either of military service without weapons (30 months) or alternative civilian service (36 months).
International human rights commitments require alternative service not to be “punitive” in length compared to military service. “Its duration shall, in comparison to that of military service, remain within reasonable limits,” the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers declared in April 1987.
“We are aware that individual lawyers have directed inquiries to the relevant authorities, including the Defence Ministry, the Justice Ministry, and Parliament’s Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 22 May. “However, no official response or indication of any adjustment to the duration of alternative civilian service has been received to date.”
On the afternoon of 22 May, Forum 18 asked Rustam Bakoyan, Acting Chair of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs, whether there are plans to reduce the length of alternative military service and alternative civilian service following the reduction in the length of military service. Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Yerevan.