Armen Ashotyan, Minister of Education and Science, suggested on his Facebook page to return to, in his formulation, the forgotten bill, in which still in the position of the Chairman of the NA Committee on Science and Education, he had raised the issue of banning the activities of a number of religious organizations in Armenia. “Back in 2008, I had suggested to specify by RA legislation that the activities of the religious organizations should be disallowed in Armenia. I have studied in depth a number of European countries’ legislation, the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and so on.
Below is an excerpt from the bill adopted by the first reading and, unfortunately, forgotten. “The activities of the religious organizations that during their activities implement or are trying to implement control over the consciousness, thinking, private life, awareness, health, property, and behavior of their members are prohibited in the territory of the Republic of Armenia,” wrote the E&S minister on his Facebook page.
At the request of Aravot.am, commenting on the post, Avetik Ishkhanyan, Chairman of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee, also human rights activist, informed that professing the freedom is also restricted by the European Convention, and there are clear standards on which cases the activities of the religious organization can be restricted. “This refers to such religious organizations that, for example, are advocating human sacrifices and self-sacrifices, some issues harmful to the health, prostitution, slavery and so on. This is the list, which can ban the religious organizations. As for the thought of Mr. Ashotyan, when he says that the religious organizations influence on the consciousness. Of course, they do, and all religious organizations and the directions effect on people’s mind. Moreover, not only the spiritual directions influence on people’s consciousness, but also the political parties, and from this prospective, I would suggest to also ban all political parties. I think a lot of the questions here are subjective. Taking also Mr. Ashotyan’s views into account that he introduced the propaganda of the Armenian Apostolic Church to schools, I think that with his bill he is trying to restrict or ban the activities of religious organizations in Armenia. In this case, I am asking a question to Mr. Ashotyan, “If you banned, is the problem thus solved? Until 2003, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were not registered, were they? Didn’t they preach and work? Or, even if after banning, they keep working, are you going to deport these religious organizations from Armenian, like once the Tondrakians were deported. Are you going to deport everyone in turn and remain only with the Apostolic sect and the RPA sect figures? I am surprised that in the 21st century, the Minister of Education of Armenia has such a narrow outlook of the world.”
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Gohar HAKOBYAN
աղչի՞ , էս դու էլ անգլո-սաքսերեն գիտես՞ 😀