As we had already reported, a roundtable discussion on “Spiritual Security: Challenges, Problems” was held under the initiative of the ARF Supreme Body of Armenia.
Theologian and lecturer at the YSU, Vardan Khachatryan, expressed his concern that an amateur approach is given to the issues of spiritual security which can have serious consequences. We were curious to know what he means by saying particularly an amateur level, Mr. Khachatryan replied, “The sociological researches do not cover this depth, the researches are not in-depth in terms of the religious mosaic. As a result, it turns out that the entire mass of our population is of one orientation – they are Christians, and the religious minorities view them among the majority, while we all know that it is not true.”
Vardan Khachatryan also expressed concern that the cultural layer is unable to reproduce itself. As an example, Vardan Khachatryan brought the fact that although the world calls it an evangelical community, but we call it a Protestants community. Historian Arthur Mkrtchyan warned that the sectarianism is widely spread; instead, there are no preventive measures.
To the question of Aravot.am whether the number of followers of sectarian organizations is growing in Armenia, Mr. Mkrtchyan replied that tendency in growth is noticed. He also mentioned that there is a legislative gap in this sphere and they would possibly come up with a legislative initiative in the near future. He noted that a number of countries, including Russia, apply laws to prevent sectarian organizations’ activities, which in no way harms the freedom of conscience and religion. Ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan also touched upon the issues of the Islamized Armenians in Turkey and noted, “An Islamized Armenian identity is shaped in Turkey. But we do not know who the Islamized Armenian is, instead, they draw numbers about their quantity.” She noted whether our raised noise about the Islamized Armenians is good or, on the contrary, bad for them.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
