Persecution

Armenia's Own Government Is Now Persecuting the Armenian Church

Crusaders Call Team

06 May 2026 — 2 min read

Christian Solidarity International Report Documents Arrests, Travel Bans, and State Coercion Against World's Oldest Christian Nation

The world's first Christian nation is now persecuting its own Church. A new report from Christian Solidarity International released on 6 May 2026 accuses the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of waging a coercive state campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church and its global spiritual leader Catholicos Karekin II.

"The coercive power of the state" is being deployed to impose political control over the Church, said CSI President Dr John Eibner. The Civil Contract party manifesto openly calls for removing Catholicos Karekin II and reshaping Church governance under state influence.

Armenian Apostolic Church Faces Government Persecution After Surviving Centuries

The CSI report, written by international lawyer Dr Peter Flew after a fact finding visit, documents arrests and criminal charges against clergy and parishioners, travel bans preventing Church leaders from attending international ecclesiastical events, public attacks undermining the Church's authority, the detention of senior clergy including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, and even civil court reinstatement of bishops removed by Church authority.

Armenia became Christian in 301 AD, the first nation in the world to do so. It has survived genocide, Soviet atheism, and the loss of Nagorno Karabakh. Now it faces a Christian government in name only that is using the apparatus of the state to muzzle the very Church that kept the nation Christian for 1,700 years.

The Crusader's Opinion

Pashinyan is doing what no Persian shah, no Ottoman caliph, and no Soviet commissar could do. He is breaking the back of the Armenian Apostolic Church from within. After Azerbaijan bulldozed the Holy Mother of God Cathedral, the survivors of that devastation are now finding their bishops jailed by their own state. Armenia's Christian heritage is the heritage of every believer. Karekin II must be defended. Pashinyan must be opposed. This is the playbook of every soft authoritarian. Capture the Church. Replace the leader. Bury the witness. Christians worldwide must not let Armenia fall.

Take Action

Donate: Christian Solidarity International
Sign: The CSI petition supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church
Contact: Your representative urging the State Department to designate Armenia for religious liberty concerns
Pray: For Catholicos Karekin II, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, and every persecuted Armenian cleric
Share: The CSI report and ask "Why is the world's first Christian nation now jailing its bishops?"

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