Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law places some
restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of minority religious groups.

The Government generally did not enforce existing legal restrictions on
religious freedom. There was no change in the status of respect for religious
freedom by the Government during the reporting period. Jehovah's Witnesses
continued to report that judges sentenced them to longer prison terms for
evasion of alternative service than in the past, although the sentences were
within the range allowed by law.

There were reports of societal abuses and discrimination based on religious
affiliation, belief, or practice.

The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as part of
its overall policy to promote human rights.

Section I. Religious Demography

The country has an area of 11,500 square miles and a population of 3.2 million.
Approximately 98 percent of the population is ethnic Armenian. The link between
Armenian ethnicity and the Armenian Church is strong. An estimated 90 percent of
citizens nominally belong to the Armenian Church, one of six ancient
autocephalous Eastern churches with its spiritual center (Mother See) located at
the Etchmiadzin cathedral and monastery near the capital of Yerevan.

There are small communities of other religious groups. There was no reliable
census data on religious minorities, and estimates from congregants varied
significantly. These groups constitute less than 5 percent of the population and
include Roman Catholics, Armenian Uniate (Mekhitarist) Catholics, Orthodox
Christians, Armenian Evangelical Christians, Molokans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day
Adventists, Baptists, various groups of charismatic Christians, Jehovah's
Witnesses, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons),
Yezidis (non-Muslim Kurds who practice Yezidism), Jews, Sunni Muslim Kurds,
Shi'ite Muslims, Baha'is, and others.

Yezidis are concentrated primarily in agricultural areas around Mount Aragats,
northwest of Yerevan. Armenian Catholics live mainly in the north, while most
Jews, Mormons, Baha'is, and Orthodox Christians reside in Yerevan, along with a
small community of mostly Shi'ite Muslims, including Iranians, and temporary
residents from the Middle East.

Section II. Status of Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion and the right to practice,
choose, or change religious belief. Nevertheless, it recognizes "the exclusive
mission of the Armenian Church as a national church in the spiritual life,
development of the national culture, and preservation of the national identity
of the people of Armenia." The Constitution and the Law on Freedom of Conscience
and Religious Organizations establish the separation of church and state but
grant the Armenian Church official status as the national church.

The April 2007 Law on the Relations of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian
Church regulates the special relations between the state and the Armenian Church
and grants certain privileges to the Armenian Church that are not available to
other religious groups. It makes the Armenian Church's marriage rite legally
binding, but the supporting legal acts to enforce this were not in place at the
end of the period covered by this report. The law also allows the Armenian
Church to have permanent representatives in hospitals, orphanages, boarding
schools, military units, and all places of detentions, while the Law on Freedom
of Conscience and Religious Organizations permits other religious organizations
to have representatives in these places on demand only. In general, the Law on
the Relations of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Church formally
recognizes the moral as well as ethnic role that the Armenian Church plays in
society, as most citizens see it as an integral part of national identity,
history, and cultural heritage.

The Government observes January 6, the day on which the Armenian Church
celebrates Christmas, as a national holiday.

The law does not mandate registration of nongovernmental organizations,
including religious groups; however, only registered organizations have legal
status. Only registered groups may publish more than one thousand copies of
newspapers or magazines, rent meeting places, broadcast programs on television
or radio, or officially sponsor the visas of visitors, although there is no
prohibition on individual members doing so. To qualify for registration,
religious organizations must "be free from materialism and of a purely spiritual
nature," have at least 200 adult members, and subscribe to a doctrine based on
"historically recognized holy scriptures." The registration requirements do not
refer to the religious organizations of national minorities. The Office of the
State Registrar registers religious entities. The Department of Religious
Affairs and National Minorities oversees religious affairs and performs a
consultative role in the registration process. There were no reports of the
Government refusing registration to religious groups that qualified for
registration under the law.

The Law on Alternative Service allows conscientious objectors--subject to
government panel approval--to perform either noncombatant military or labor
service duties rather than serve as combat-trained military personnel. The law
took effect in 2004 and applies to subsequent draftees and those serving prison
terms for draft evasion. A January 2006 amendment to the Criminal Code
criminalizes evasion of alternative labor service. However, conscientious
objectors continued to maintain that military control of the alternative labor
service amounted to unacceptable military service.

The Law on Education mandates that public schools offer a secular education.
Only personnel authorized and trained by the Government may teach in public
schools. Classes in religious history are part of the public school curriculum
and are taught by public school teachers. The history of the Armenian Church is
the basis of this curriculum; many schools teach about world religions in
elementary school and the history of the Armenian Church in middle school. All
religious organizations may establish groups for religious instruction to train
their members, utilizing facilities belonging to or set aside for them. The law
grants the Armenian Church the right to organize voluntary religious classes in
state education institutions using the facilities and resources of those
institutions.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

The Government generally did not enforce existing legal restrictions on
religious freedom. There was no change in the status of respect for religious
freedom by the Government during the period covered by this report.

The Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations prohibits but does
not define "proselytizing." The prohibition applies to all groups, including the
Armenian Church. Most registered religious groups reported no significant legal
impediments to their activities during the reporting period.

Although the law prohibits foreign funding of foreign-based denominations, the
Government did not enforce the ban.

In May and June 2008, the progovernment Hayots Ashkhar and Golos Armenii daily
newspapers published anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic accusations against former
president and current opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian. Local observers
viewed the inflammatory articles as attempts to portray the opposition leader as
a traitor to the country and stir up anti-Semitic sentiment in a country
traditionally known for its welcoming attitude toward Jews.

On June 1, 2008, the state-operated H1 public television channel broadcast a
10-minute segment on its weekly 360 Degrees news magazine program, the sole
focus of which appeared to be to disparage and undermine the opposition. The
footage incorporated the anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic attacks by Hayots Ashkhar
and Golos Armenii.

On February 27, 2008, H1's news program presented coverage of a
post-presidential election opposition rally, focusing primarily on an Israeli
flag--one of many nations' flags in the crowd--with the intention of vilifying
Ter-Petrossian, whose wife is Jewish.

On May 15, 2008, a judge from Yerevan's Shengavit community general jurisdiction
court invalidated the decision of the Guardianship Board of Yerevan Davitashen
community recommending that a member of Jehovah's Witnesses be deprived of her
parental rights because of her religious affiliation.

In April 2008 Jehovah's Witnesses cleared shipments of religious literature that
in March 2007 customs officials had evaluated at a significantly higher rate
than the group expected by paying the full price and took their case to the
administrative court. At the end of the reporting period, the court had not made
a decision.

Conscientious objectors continued to face problems in obtaining necessary
documents from the military commissariat.

Abuses of Religious Freedom

Jehovah's Witnesses complained that, compared with the prior reporting period,
the courts continued to hand down longer sentences for evasion of alternative
service. Between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, of the 36 Jehovah's Witnesses
sentenced, 19 received 30-month sentences and 3 received 36-month sentences, the
maximum allowed by law. The remaining 14 received prison terms ranging between
22 and 27 months.

According to Jehovah's Witnesses leaders in Yerevan, at the end of the reporting
period, 78 of their members remained in prison for refusal to perform military
service or alternative labor service on conscientious and religious grounds.
Representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses stated that all of the prisoners had been
given the opportunity to serve an alternative to military service rather than
prison time but had refused because the military continued to retain
administrative control over the alternative service.

Other than Jehovah's Witnesses who were conscientious objectors, there were no
reports of religious prisoners or detainees in the country.

Forced Religious Conversion

There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of minor U.S.
citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or
of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States.

Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination

There were reports of societal abuses based on religious affiliation, belief, or
practice. Societal attitudes toward most minority religious groups were
ambivalent. While many citizens are not religiously observant, the link between
Armenian ethnicity and the Armenian Church is strong.

According to some observers, the general population expressed negative attitudes
about minority religious groups, especially Jehovah's Witnesses, because of the
latter's refusal to serve in the military, the group's little-understood
proselytizing practices, and a widespread but unsubstantiated belief that
Jehovah's Witnesses pay the desperately poor to convert. Minority religious
groups at times continued to be targets of hostile sermons by Armenian Church
clerics, and members of minority religious groups experienced societal
discrimination and intolerance.

On May 5, 2008, a member of Jehovah's Witnesses filed a complaint with the
police, claiming that a man assaulted her and a fellow member when she offered
to engage him in Bible study. By the end of the reporting period, the police had
not acted on the complaint.

On February 21, 2008, Jehovah's Witnesses reported that an alleged Armenian
Apostolic priest, Nver Melkonyan, physically assaulted a member of their group
in Sisian after the member offered to engage in Bible study with him. The member
of Jehovah's Witnesses who was attacked complained to the police, Prosecutor
General, and Ombudsman, requesting that the Government prosecute the assailant.
The police refused to initiate a criminal case, since Melkonyan refuted the
assault. Jehovah's Witnesses reported that in July 2007 Melkonyan had on
different occasions attacked two other Jehovah's Witnesses, who did not file
official complaints. The Armenian Church denied that Melkonyan had any clerical
affiliation with it.

On July 31, 2007, in Yerevan, an off-duty police major and his brother allegedly
beat a man who was a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. The man and his wife, who
was a witness to the attack, filed complaints with the police, Prosecutor's
Office, and human rights defender. The police reportedly closed the case due to
lack of evidence.

Throughout the reporting period, a group called One Nation Party placed posters
in Yerevan that denounced Jehovah's Witnesses and called upon persons to be
aware of sects.

In the days prior to the February 2008 presidential election, an anonymous
antiopposition organization distributed a digital video disk in Yerevan that
used anti-Semitic claims, epithets, and innuendo against Ter-Petrossian, the
leading opposition candidate. The allegations cast aspersions on the candidate's
Jewish wife and alleged that the candidate was collaborating with the Israeli
Government and others in a "Zionist plot" to undermine the state. Some of the
contents of the digital video disk were shown on a private television channel
that has a national viewing audience.

On December 17, 2007, Jewish community members discovered a small swastika drawn
on the Hebrew side of the 14-month-old Joint Tragedies Memorial. The Jewish
community dismissed the incident as a random act.

Media outlets continued to label religious groups other than the Armenian Church
as "sects" in their broadcasting and transmitted negative programs about them.
Various television stations broadcast discussions in which representatives of
the Armenian Church and/or other participants labeled religious minority groups
as enemies of the state and national unity.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as part of
its overall policy to promote human rights. During the period covered by this
report, the U.S. Government emphasized to authorities that continued eligibility
for the Millennium Challenge Compact remained contingent upon the Government's
performance in meeting good governance indicators, which include standards of
respect for religious freedom.

U.S. embassy officials maintained close contact with the Catholicos (primate of
the Armenian Church) at Etchmiadzin and with leaders of other religious and
ecumenical groups in the country. The Embassy maintained regular contact with
resident and visiting regional representatives of foreign-based religious groups
and raised their concerns with the Government when necessary. U.S. officials
also publicly condemned, and urged the Government to promptly end, the
anti-Semitic attacks on Ter-Petrossian and his wife by the state-run H1 public
television channel.

Released on September 19, 2008