There are no new religious organizations in Armenia at present. As Alexander Amaryan, the Head of the Center for Help and Rehabilitation to Victims of Destructive Cults, stated at the Novosti International Press Center today, the existing religious organizations have started to become more active given the upcoming parliamentary election instead. “Sectarian organizations submit to their pastors who have already started to sell the votes of their adherents to parties. The charismatic Embassy of God, Word of Life and Word of Faith churches conduct particularly active negotiations”, said the spokesperson. The expert did not rule out that some members of Word of Life would appear in the National Assembly in the short-run. In Amaryan’s words, sectarians have been in the government bodies since as early as 2004, “They are everywhere, even in courts. There was Sona Fahradyan, a psychologist, in the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time. They gathered at 16 Gajegorstner St.”
According to Amaryan’s data, there are 300 000-350 000 non-Armenian Apostolic Church followers in Armenia at present. Representing the activities of some of them, A. Amaryan stated that as opposed to transparent Catholic and Orthodox churches, destructing sects were closed and constituted a big threat, instigating people to join their organization through hunt for souls and turning them into zombies.
There are 67 registered at present and twice as many unregistered religious organizations in Armenia. A part of them operate as educational institutions or NGOs, however when state officials try to clarify something, they forbid, explaining it by violation of the right to freedom of thought and conscience. In A. Amaryan’s words, Armenia falls back in terms of fight against sects due to lack of respective specialists, in particular, theologian-lawyers, theologian-psychologists, as a result of which reasons for some murders or suicides are characterized as domestic, “E.g. the hanging herself of 12-year-old girl in 2004, the murder of a goldsmith in 2003 or the recent case of a son who killed his parents in Sevan.”
The expert added that sects denied the membership of those people to their organization in such instances, “Someone approached me in the street recently and gave me an envelope addressed to me; the video in it made it clear that Word of Life leader Artur Simonyan and Angela Sargsyan had conducted joint activities. It was obvious that Angela was engaged in propaganda and hunt for souls.”
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In the spokesperson’s words, destructive sects’ activities threaten not only the national security, but also the essence of a nation having a 1700-year-old history.
A. Amaryan reckoned the reason for sectarian organizations was the fact that the law had remained on paper.
The expert noted that the Apostolic Church followers’ faith was confined to lighting candles in the church; many people said that they were disappointed with clergymen, whereas clergyman was a mediator between the God and human, “Sectarians are powerful insofar as each of them is a preacher and we have left it to a clergyman and have stepped aside.”
Luiza SUKIASYAN