The Cooperation for Democracy center has carried out a monitoring in Armenian schools. Stepan Danielyan, the director of the center, stated during a press conference today that cases when children had been forced to pray and cross themselves had been registered in Armenian schools, whereas they had been atheists or there had been cases of performing religious rites during classes. Danielyan also said that one was under the impression that who was not a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church was not an Armenian.
Lawyer Ara Ghazaryan who had participated in the same process stated that the class on the history of the Armenian Church was taught in schools, along with propaganda of intolerance toward the other religions. www.aravot.am asked Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, to comment on the issue. He, talking about organizations working in the framework of the “outside” grant projects, which have such an attitude toward the Armenian Apostolic Church, said, “There are circles in Armenia, to which the ancient Roman saying ‘foreign bread has a bitter flavor’ is still applicable.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
