Human Rights Cannot Be Bargained Away: Daniel Ioannisyan at the OSCE

On October 7, at the OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator at the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, addressed the political involvement of the Church in Armenia, the factor of Russian influence, and the need to uphold human rights in this context, stressing that political objectives cannot justify human rights violations.

“Ladies and gentlemen,

I am sure that everyone in this room knows that Russia has repeatedly used-or weaponized-the Church against a number of independent states. We have seen this in Ukraine, in the Baltic states, and we are seeing it in Armenia as well.

Many of you may have heard about the tensions between political and church leadership in Armenia. Let me briefly walk you through the chronology of these developments.

It essentially began in 2020, when the supreme leader of the Church, Catholicos Garegin II, called for the elected government to be replaced by an unelected coalition of pro-Russian political forces.

In 2021, Church leadership was forcing priests to attend the rallies organized by pro-Russian opposition parties.

At the same time, a number of statements from high-ranking clergy called for a military coup. They were openly saying that democracy is bad. Moreover, some senior clergy members have been accused of going beyond political rhetoric and becoming involved in preparations for violent actions.

Then, in 2024, the Church leadership became actively involved in a movement opposing the border delimitation and demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan – a process that is extremely important for building lasting peace. But Church leadership follows Russian interests and is obstructing any peace-building process.

The links between the Church leadership and the Kremlin can also be seen through other activities. One senior member of the clergy, who is also the brother of the Catholicos and had official ties with Soviet KGB, blessed Russian servicemen involved in the war crimes in Ukraine and later received a medal from Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, in the course of this confrontation, unacceptable human rights related boundaries were crossed. The most serious example was the dissemination of a video material showing a senior Church figure in a sexual relationship with his uncle’s wife.

This material appeared after public statements by the Prime Minister Pashinyan that had already drawn attention to the same relationship. The timing shows that the aim was to undermine the traditional values rhetoric used by pro-Russian forces.

But whatever the political purpose is – it is unacceptable. Of course, the Church should be stopped from being abused by Russia. But our message to the Armenian government is that human rights can not be traded for that”.