0 8000 12 11

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor undertakes a project on religious minorities’ roundtables. The goal of this project is to arrive at a pluralistic society in Armenia in which there is a true freedom of religion. Through a series of meetings over the country, it is intended to increase the awareness in the Armenian society about the various religious convictions and create an atmosphere of tolerance and understanding whereby a variety of religion is viewed upon as an asset for the society.

Analysis of Armenian national laws with respect to freedom of religion in the light of demands of the European Commission will be made and presented to state structures, religious organizations and NGOs.

In Shirak Region 632 people are members of Evangelical-Baptist church. Only people of full age can be a member of this religious organization, who make a “conscious decision”, it means that they have already chosen their faith and were baptized. The visit of employees of HCA Vanadzor to this church aimed at studying and revealing the problems that hinder society to perceive religious organizations correctly and cause their isolation from society. During the talk with Ruben Pahlevanyan, pastor of Evangelical-Baptist church of Shirak Region it was found out that their church was not isolated from society at all. They are interested in all the problems, which also concern the community members; from peace and war to pollution, rise in gas prices, etc. They actively participate in public life of the region, in events initiated by NGOs, and take an active standpoint in civil matters. And if there is necessity to show any position on public issues Ruben Pahlevanyan is ready to convince the members of his community to participate. But the pastor does not preach publicly, especially if it concerns political processes. “They hardly tolerate our existence”-says pastor and comments that in case of participating openly in any political process the community is likely to be impacted and oppressed. And it will not end positively for a minority. “I am not so naive in order to think that we have established civil society. We live in a military-feudal society and we are afraid of putting today’s working churches in danger”-says R. Pahlevanyan. The subject of the latest concern of this religious organization (and not only theirs’), was the Constitutional changes. With that, the grounds of the Armenian Apostolic Church were strengthened. RA Constitution recognizes exclusive mission of the Armenian Apostolic Church , as the national church, in the spiritual life of Armenian people, in the development of their culture and in maintaining self-identity. In the position of national security the fact of important role of Armenian Apostolic Church in national security is also fixed. Though several religious organizations gathered before the Constitutional changes and tried to discuss issues concerning them, they decided to remain neutral. R. Pahlevanyan thinks that that there is a clear policy and going against it means to put a whole religious organization in danger. The pastor of the Evangelical-Baptist church expects that they will be invited to public discussions to discuss the position of national security. On the other hand he is suspicious because while elaborating and discussing the legislation on religious organizations they are not invited and they do it with several clergies and short TV programs. Though normal relations have been formed with other religious organizations, they don’t have any joint undertakings. They are limited to meetings during which they try not to refer to religious differences. The Evangelical Baptist church does not have relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church . They are restricted by different oppressions and blames. Recently, the head of Shirak diocese Mikael bishop Ajapalyan prohibited Gyumri local TVs to air other religious organizations. Before that, Ruben Pahlevanyan actively participated in different TV programs, and not only on religious topics. The attitude of the Apostolic church was expressed in other fields, too. The priest of Nahapetavan village of Artik district prohibited the school director to give premises to the Evangelical-Baptist church to hold their Sunday school there. The solution of problems that religious organizations have and which inhibit their integration in the society as a part of the same society, according to R. Pahlevanyan is the contact with NGOs, institutions of human rights protection. The church today tries to change public opinion on the goal of their activity. The important thing for this religious organization is the spreading of the evangelical ideology. They deal with solution of not only religious but also social problems. Furthermore, they support not only the members of this community but others as well.

About 800 children from Shirak Region are involved in different study groups. Not everyone is a member of this community. As R. Pahlevanyan says that the groups work for Christian education and children attend with the permission of parents and the parents are not members of the church. “Benevolence is the policy of this church, about which the Gospel says” –mentioned the pastor of the church.

The church has two charitable canteens in Gyumri, which give food to 150 elderly people and 100 children. In order to verify the list of socially insecure people, the members of Evangelical-Baptist church cooperate with state and local governmental bodies and NGOs.
The Evangelical church in Gyumri has a history of 160-170 years. R. Pahlevanyan presented in his talk with the employees of HCA Vanadzor the history of the church.

“There is a myth that this is new after the earthquake. But there are historical facts according to which in 1914 the evangelists of Alexandrapol applied to Voroncov Dashkov, deputy of Russian tsar with the request of getting registration. These historical events were prevented and tsarist government did not register. But after the earthquake the church was registered. The contact with the similar churches abroad promoted it. So, in Shirak Region the church started to work. It is included in the council of Armenian Evangelical-Baptist churches. All the 65 baptist churches of Armenia are included in it.”
Naira Bulghadaryan