Council of Europe should speak out more loudly about persecution of Armenian Church: Edward Leigh

“I want to stress that I am completely neutral on matters of Armenian politics. As the English idiom goes, ‘I’ve no axe to grind with any particular party,’ meaning I have no personal interest and no reason to support either side,” Sir Edward Leigh, a member of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), told Alpha News.

The British MP earlier criticized the Armenian authorities for pressuring the Armenian Apostolic Church during a discussion of the results of Armenia’s elections at the PACE plenary session on September 28.

“Nevertheless, I have done my own research and obtained information about the persecution of the Armenian Church, one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. As far as I know, Armenian governments have never before persecuted the Church or tried to establish control over it. But the current government is putting bishops in custody and bringing charges against the Catholicos.

Whatever the truth about these accusations may be (I do not have full information that would allow me to judge them), the situation itself raises serious questions. For Armenia and its international reputation, especially in the eyes of Christians like me, a situation in which bishops are held in custody looks extremely negative. That is exactly what my speech was about, and that is my position. I believe the Council of Europe should speak out more clearly and consistently on this issue.

Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe, and, from the standpoint of human rights principles, the bishops should be allowed to carry out their activities freely.

I understand that the government has brought various charges against representatives of the Church. However, I have been told that the real cause of the conflict may be linked to the bishops’ position on the right of Armenian refugees to return to Nagorno-Karabakh. As it was explained to me, this position may have put the government in a difficult situation after the loss of control over that territory.

In addition, the bishops remain one of the few independent sources of criticism of the authorities. According to the information I have, this may have been the cause of the conflict between the government and the Church.

I am not Armenian, and I do not think it is right to interfere in a country’s domestic politics. I can only assess the situation from the outside. At the same time, I must tell the people of Armenia: when people in Britain or other European countries see reports of bishops being put in custody, regardless of the stated reasons, it inevitably affects the perception of Armenia and its reputation.

That is why my strong advice to the Armenian government is to refrain from interfering in the affairs of the Church and to stop any actions that could be seen as persecuting it,” Leigh said.