Amsterdam urges world to protect Armenian Church from government interference

Robert Amsterdam. Photo: Facebook / Amsterdam & Partners LLP

On August 27, international lawyer Robert Amsterdam called on the international community to protect the Armenian Apostolic Church from government interference. The appeal was made in a statement by the international law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP published on Facebook.

Amsterdam said Armenian authorities had placed issues of “spiritual security” and Church reform on the political agenda and had also proposed a parliamentary investigation into an alleged “systemic crisis” within the Church. The moves followed several months of pressure on the clergy, criminal cases against clerics, and demands by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for the resignation of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.

“This is not reform. It is an attempt at a political takeover of an independent religious institution,” Amsterdam said. According to him, the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church should be determined by its own ecclesiastical structures and traditions, not by decisions of the government in power.

The lawyer called on governments, religious leaders, and human rights organizations to publicly speak out in defense of the Church. “The Church does not belong to Nikol Pashinyan. It does not belong to his government. It belongs to its faithful, and its independence must be protected,” Amsterdam stressed.

As the UOJ previously reported, Amsterdam called the trial of the head of the Armenian Church a moral catastrophe.

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