Armenian church protests against amendments to law on freedom of conscience and religion

Michael Achapayan, head of the Shirakskaya Eparchy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, expressed concern at the new amendments to the law
on freedom of conscience and religion, News Armenia reports.

The amendments benefit religious minorities in Armenia. They will be
presented at the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. The
Armenian Parliament will view it in autumn.

Achapayan said that Armenia has numerous problems with human rights
and needs to prioritize the amendments. The amendments do not harm the
church.

Armenian Deputy Justice Minister Grigor Muradyan underlined that the
new law would not affect the church’s privileges.

The head of the OSCE office in Yerevan, Sergey Kapinos, believes that
the bill would cope with controversies between international and
Armenian legislative norms. The religious problem is topical in most
states, including Armenia.

The Armenian Justice Ministry and the OSCE office in Yerevan organized
public discussions of the bill on Friday. The discussions were planned
in order to exchange public views and the interests of organizations
in religion and faith.

Officials from religious communities and national minorities,
international organizations, society, state structures and parliament
were invited to contribute to the process.

Armenia has 67 religious organizations registered, 10 of which belong
to the Apostolic Church and 57 to other confessions. The rest are
sects. Armenia has had 350,000 officials from non-church structures
since the 90s.