Detained Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan has sent a letter from prison to the Christian Solidarity International (CSI) delegation, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, and participants of the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, reports Panorama.am.
“Dear Ambassador Brownback, esteemed participants of the International Religious Freedom Summit, I greet you from the Yerevan-Kentron Penitentiary in the name of our crucified and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. I regret that I cannot be with you in your fight for religious freedom and belief, but I am grateful to our friends at CSI and Swiss MP Erich Vontobel for allowing me to communicate with you,” the letter begins.
Galstanyan writes that he and three other clergymen — Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, and Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan,“have been surveilled, arrested, interrogated, slandered through state-sponsored media campaigns, and imprisoned on false charges.”
He adds that other faithful clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church have also been subjected to threats and violence, though not yet arrested. Among them, he notes, is the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II, whom Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly labeled a “threat to national security.” The archbishop said a state-backed, unconstitutional campaign is underway to remove him and replace him with a politically subservient cleric.
“Today I am imprisoned for one simple reason: my ‘crime’ is speaking unwelcome truth to power, in the spirit of nonviolence championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That truth is that the Christian Armenian nation is facing an existential threat,” Galstanyan writes.
He describes how Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, is allegedly working to strip Armenia of its sovereignty while also targeting the Armenian Church.
“The Republic of Armenia was created as a safe homeland for the survivors and descendants of the Armenian Genocide. But Azerbaijan’s dictator, who calls Armenia ‘Western Azerbaijan,’ seeks to make Armenia a vassal state incapable of defending its people and interests. Turkey supports this effort, expanding its sphere of influence from Israel’s borders to the Caspian Sea.”
He argues that a key part of this agenda is silencing the Armenian Apostolic Church.
“Why? Because the Church is the cornerstone of the Christian Armenian nation and, throughout its history, has been the only unifying institution. It has survived persecution by the Ottoman Empire, Soviet regime, and Azerbaijan. Today, it is under attack again. Azerbaijan claims the Church is an obstacle to peace and demands it be stripped of its historical role in Armenian national life,” the letter states.
The archbishop calls on summit participants to pray for him and other imprisoned clergy, and to convey three specific requests to Vice President Vance ahead of his upcoming visit:
- Deliver a clear message to both the Azerbaijani president and Armenian prime minister that the United States will not tolerate continued persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
- Call on both leaders to release political prisoners—especially the 20 Armenians held in Baku and the four clergy and church supporters imprisoned in Armenia.
- Include the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin as a party to dialogue in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process.
