Epress.am News from Armenia
The mandatory teaching of the “History of the Armenian Church” class in schools in the Republic of Armenia is not in line with Armenian law and international agreements that Armenia is signatory to. Epress.am spoke to Cooperation for Democracy Center president and human rights defender Stepan Danielyan, who mentioned and spoke about the latter issue.
He noted that the class would correspond with Armenian law if it taught the history of church properly, regardless of whether “we like it or not.”
“The main issue is not that it is the history of Armenian church, rather there is no history there, it’s distorted and fragmented, and a large part doesn’t correspond to reality. I truly advice anyone to just open the 10th grade History of the Armenian Church textbook. There is no historical concept. I'm sorry, but it is complete nonsense. It’s like a combination of words, in which it instills that whoever is not a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church is not Armenian, that patriotism is expressed through the church. It is a somewhat moralistic, incomprehensible, and a half-literate piece of work,” said Danielyan.
The expert noted that his organization conducted monitoring, attempting to understand the extent of the course’s instruction and its correspondence with the secular nature of Armenian schools, as a result, multiple violations were revealed. According to Danielyan, teachers, municipalities and reginal councils employees have told him about the latter, without realizing that those were actual violations. The monitoring revealed, that there were teachers who begin their classes with a prayer, and in schools there had been incidents of inquisition. The list of these violations has been sent by the organization to the Armenian Education and Sciences Ministry.
Danielyan also stressed that the nature of the class contradicts the Toledo Principles, whereas in Armenia’s National Strategy for Human Rights it is noted that Armenia’s education system must correspond to that international agreement.
Referring to the Armenian Minister of Education and Sciences Armen Ashotyan's attitude, who had stated that the course would be taught in schools regardless, and that the people raising the issue are only grant-eating organizations, Danielyan noted that it is due to the fact that government officials have personal relations with church representatives. He stressed that the Ministry of Education is violating the law, passing the teachers' training to Christian Education Centers under the auspices of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This is a violation, because the ministry cannot give away its authorities to other entities.
Recall, that the “History of the Armenian Church” has been referenced as an issue by various human rights organizations and by the US State Department. The latter report published in 2013, stresses that Armenian law mandates public education to be secular, however, the course on the “History of the Armenian Church” is mandatory.
While Armenia’s ethnic majority is 98% Armenian, about 92% belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Other religious sects and religions in Armenia consist of Roman Catholics, Armenian Uniate (Mekhitarist) Catholics, Orthodox Christians, evangelical Christians, Molokans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists, charismatic Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Yezidis (largest ethnic-religious minority), Jews, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, pagans and others.
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