The newspaper “Past” writes: “On Christmas Eve, as the residents of Armenia are immersed in festive preparations, the Christmas light faintly penetrates through bars into an 8-square-meter prison cell. It is here that the holiday is to be marked by archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church—the Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, two diocesan bishops, a former head of another diocese, as well as the Catholicos’s brother and nephew.
The case involving Archbishop Mikayel is the most alarming. Today he is not in a prison cell, but in a hospital ward, where he is awaiting urgent surgery. Yet even there, his condition differs little from detention: the hospital room has been turned into a space of total control and restriction, where waiting for medical intervention becomes a new form of imprisonment. On Christmas Eve, the cleric spends the holiday in solitude, under guard supervision, while he should be alongside his spiritual flock and loved ones.
International human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam notes: “Pashinyan began as a populist but turned into an autocrat, dismantling democracy and directing repression against the Armenian Apostolic Church. After the authorities punished unjustly my client (businessman and national benefactor Samvel Karapetyan – ed.), they went even further—against the country’s senior clergy. Today, four leading archbishops are in prison.” The health condition of the imprisoned clergy is raising increasing concern. One of the archbishops, Bagrat Galstanyan, has visibly lost weight, something apparent to the naked eye. His appearance itself testifies that the system not only deprives people of freedom, but also undermines health and affects human dignity.
The visiting schedules and restrictions imposed on the imprisoned clergy are astonishing in their senseless cruelty. Relatives and parishioners are forced to adapt to these schedules, while in the case of some archbishops, visits are permitted exclusively with lawyers.
Renowned lawyer Aram Vardevanyan characterizes what is happening as a legal absurdity: “It is difficult to imagine even a single European country where such an action could be carried out with the participation of thousands of armed security forces. It is absurd. We are obliged to defend the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Catholicos. There is no legal logic whatsoever in all of this.”
These facts evoke not a modern democratic state, but pages from medieval chronicles that tell how authorities sought to suppress the clergy by depriving it of freedom and the right to speak. Today, in 2025, such scenes appear as an anachronism, a challenge to the very idea of human rights.
Criticism is also being voiced by international organizations.
Thus, in a statement by Christian Solidarity International (CSI), it is noted: “The situation in Armenia regarding religious freedom and human rights is deteriorating sharply, and the refusal by authorities to allow international observers to visit the imprisoned clergy has become an alarming sign of deepening repression.”
“Armenian Christians are under growing pressure,” believes Lord Jackson of Peterborough, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Armenia is the first country in the world to have adopted Christianity as a state religion (301 AD). For centuries, this has been a source of pride for Armenians, part of their national identity and spiritual heritage. Yet today, in the very heart of Armenia, what the people have been proud of for centuries is being destroyed: respect for spiritual leaders, freedom of faith and speech. The authorities have fundamentally forgotten that the Church is separate from the state and are grossly violating the Constitution by restricting the Church’s freedom of activity, interfering in its canonical affairs, and editing liturgies.
The authorities continue to present themselves as democratic, but in practice they have failed to convince the population of the correctness of their repression against the Church. Society perceives what is happening not as the rule of law, but as a show of force directed against spiritual authorities.
Christmas celebrated in prison becomes a metaphor. It speaks of the fact that faith and spiritual strength cannot be confined behind prison walls, but it is also evidence of the cruelty of the system. The influence of these clergymen on society was enormous: their words became subjects of discussion, their prayers united people. Yet today they are deprived even of the opportunity to celebrate the holiday with their spiritual community.
This New Year’s story demands attention not only within the country, but beyond its borders as well. It shows that in the heart of Armenia, the Christmas light is being extinguished by bars and cell locks. And this is not merely an internal conflict. It is a matter of universal values that must be defended anywhere in the world.
More details in today’s issue of the newspaper.
