We must protect the world’s oldest Christian country

What is happening in Armenia?

Armenia is the world’s oldest Christian country. It is a profoundly Christian nation, and its faith survived decades of Soviet repression.

However, what is happening now threatens that legacy. Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is lashing out against the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church as it refuses to bow to his orders and will not back down from its criticism of how Armenian Christians were cleansed from Nagorno-Karabakh following military defeat against Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan’s rampage against the church comes against an ominous backdrop of democratic backsliding that should trouble us all. His conduct is blatantly unbecoming of his office and Armenia’s democratic status. This is without going into detail on his smear campaign against high-ranking clerics.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the treatment of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Senior clergy – including archbishops and bishops – have been arrested; church assets have been seized; and the Prime Minister has openly called for the removal of the Church’s leader, Catholicos Karekin II. More troubling still, he has spoken of replacing the Church with a so-called ‘state-centred’ body, effectively subordinated to government and forbidden from dissent.

The situation is still deteriorating. The Armenian Church, due to Pashinyan’s efforts, held a Synod to debate Pashinyan’s attack – and to avoid repercussions took place in Austria. In response, the Catholicos has been indicted and banned from travelling.

Opposition parties have expressed to me their fear that the election will not be conducted fairly. They report that independent media outlets – particularly those critical of the government – have been subjected to repeated raids, and that peaceful protests have been met with heavy-handed and sometimes violent policing.

The church’s strongest backer, billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, was arrested over his support for the church. He is currently under house arrest and banned from making public statements. Karapetyan recently dodged those restrictions though a novel use of AI to deliver a speech announcing his new political party and intention to run against Pashinyan.

This is especially tragic because Armenia ought to be a success story. When the USSR collapsed, Armenia turned deliberately away from authoritarianism and towards Western democratic norms.

As part of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I questioned Armenia’s Foreign Minister directly on this matter in Strasbourg. Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe and is therefore bound by solemn obligations to uphold democratic freedoms. Yet the actions of its government are plainly at odds with the freedom of religion and belief, and with freedom of expression itself.

The Minister was unable to give a satisfactory answer. That is hardly surprising. The situation represents a clear breach of the international standards to which Armenia has voluntarily subscribed.

Worse still, the original threat that started Pashinyan’s attacks on the church remains very real. Despite the Trump-backed peace plan, Turkey and Azerbaijan continue to hungrily eye Armenian land. Azerbaijan is responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Erdogan government in Turkey continues to reject the historical Armenian genocide in WWI.

You can draw your own conclusions of what might happen if Armenia falls.

If these current trends continue, and if the West responds with silence or indifference, Armenia may be lost. It could become yet another country in which all institutions, even religion itself, are required to bend to the will of those in power.

That would be a failure not only for Armenia, but for all who claim to stand for liberty and democracy. Worse, we might see Armenia and its proud history disappear from the map or become a rump state, little more than a hostage to its neighbors.

Edward Leigh is the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough and current Father of the House.