An interview with Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor
Noratert: There is some information that in the near future some Armenian groups, speciallytrained like the Muscovite skinheads,will be organized in Yerevan to fight against structures and phenomena, which are foreign and strange to our morals and customs, and are violating our national and spiritual values. As a human rights defender, what do you think about it?

Human rights activist Artur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor believes that the RA law on freedom of conscience and religion is a disputable law which is targeted against non-Apostolic churches.

Human rights activist Artur Sakunts, head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor is certain that there will political prisoners or as he put, prisoners of conscience in Armenia as long as the issue of independent judiciary and fair verdicts is not resolved. 

“No to Armenian National Movement press”, “No to opposing sects”, “No to Levon-supporting sects” these flyers are posted in the various streets of Yerevan by the “One Nation” political party but this is not something new to the RA citizens.

“The issue of freedom of conscience still remains a problem and it is the first indicator for human rights situation”-mentioned Arthur Sakunts, the coordinator of HCA Vanadzor, during the discussion on “Religious Tolerance in Vanadzor” held at Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly-Vanadzor office on March 21, 2009. It was organized within the framework of the International day for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination during the UNITED action week against racism.

Jehovah's Witnesses in Armenia face discrimination and imprisonment because of their beliefs, according to a new Amnesty International report.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan today hosted a meeting during which representatives of government, non-governmental organizations and different religious communities discussed freedom of conscience and religion in Armenia.

What inhibits religious organizations, which believe in the same God, to cooperate with one another? What are the factors that prevent from tolerating each other and being involved in public processes together.

On August 10-11, 2006 HCA Vanadzor will organize a conference on “The Role of Religious Organization in Public Processes”. The conference is organized within the framework of the project “Public Awareness Raising on Freedom of Religion in Armenia ” with support of Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The right part of the mathematical equation is zero. It doesn’t matter what operation you do on the left side the result is zero. Rafael Grigoryan compares human life with equation and thinks “If I die and become a zero, there is no sense how I lived here”.

35 year-old Armen Margaryan is a believer of Armenian Apostolic Church. His belief towards God has a history of 12 years. Before that Armen and his family did not believe in God and they were very far from Armenian Apostolic Church. After an incident happened in their family they began thinking about God and his wonders.

The head of Armenian Apostolic Church-Gugarats diocese Sepuh bishop Chuljyan considers the present period as a period of temptation. Armenian traditional religion having 2000 years’ history is under the risks of attacks by different religious movements and if it continues like this Armenian statehood will undergo a shock.

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor undertakes a project on religious minorities. It has been implemented since 2005 and is supported by Dutch Embassy. The goal of this project is to arrive at a pluralistic society in Armenia in which there is a true freedom of religion.

David Torosyan, the head of Yerevan Evangelical Baptist Christians' church called “Betel” spent several days in prison in 1995. He told how the volunteer combatants “accidentally attacked religious organizations” in those days.