The Truth Behind Armenia’s Prayer Breakfast

Church Crackdown, Clergy Arrests and the Silence on Artsakh

By Horizon Staff Writer

Armenia’s first national prayer breakfast was presented as a moment of reflection, unity and spiritual renewal. Instead, it exposed a profound contradiction at the heart of the country’s political direction. While government officials gathered in Yerevan’s halls to recite scripture and speak about moral responsibility, senior Armenian Apostolic clergy remained behind bars, their arrest part of a sweeping campaign of intimidation against the Church and those who refuse to align themselves with the government’s narrative. The contrast could not be starker.

Over the past year, Armenia has witnessed an escalation of state pressure on the Church unprecedented in the history of the republic. High-ranking clergymen, including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan – a dual Armenian-Canadian citizen – have been imprisoned on charges that even many secular observers describe as politically engineered. Lay people who have publicly defended the Church or criticized the government’s treatment of it have similarly found themselves targeted. What began as a political dispute has transformed into a full-scale confrontation with the nation’s most venerable institution, one that has anchored Armenian identity for centuries.

The timing of the prayer breakfast speaks volumes. At a moment when bishops are held in detention and parish priests are summoned for questioning, the government inaugurated a ceremony that claims to celebrate faith and moral integrity. To invited foreign guests, the event was portrayed as a sign of Armenia’s commitment to spiritual values and democratic renewal. Yet anyone familiar with local realities quickly understood the deeper context. The government is attempting to rebrand itself as a champion of religious freedom while simultaneously constraining the only religious institution that commands broad national legitimacy.

The contradictions did not go unnoticed abroad. Several invited American conservative figures, including Donald Trump Jr., reportedly withdrew their participation once the extent of the government’s pressure on the Armenian Church became clear. Their absence underscored what many inside Armenia already know: that this event is not a celebration of faith, but an attempt to mask political persecution with ceremonial piety. Even among sympathetic audiences, the inconsistency between public messaging and private repression proved impossible to ignore.

This pressure on the Church cannot be understood in isolation. It is inseparable from the larger political trauma that has followed the loss of Artsakh. The dismantling of Artsakh’s self-governing institutions, the forced displacement of its population and the absence of any accountability for Azerbaijan’s genocidal aggression have left a deep wound on Armenian society. The Armenian Church has spoken consistently about the moral and national dimensions of this tragedy. It has insisted that the plight of Artsakh’s people cannot be reduced to diplomatic expediency. It has demanded justice, memory and dignity.

The government, by contrast, has treated the issue as an obstacle to a rapid and externally imposed peace. Unable to tolerate dissent from its chosen path, it has sought to silence those who remind the nation of its obligations to Artsakh and to the principles that once guided Armenia’s foreign policy. This is the true source of the current confrontation. The Church is not being punished for political ambition, but for moral clarity. It is being targeted because it refuses to bless a peace process shaped by pressure, coercion and the interests of outside powers.

The corrosive effects of this policy extend far beyond the Church itself. Journalists, activists and community leaders who have questioned the government’s course have been detained, harassed or threatened. Public debate has narrowed dramatically. A climate of fear has taken hold among those who worry that even measured criticism may result in retaliation. These developments do not reflect the behavior of a confident democratic state. They reflect the instincts of a government that has grown increasingly intolerant of disagreement.

International Christian organizations, especially Christian Solidarity International, have been forthright in drawing attention to this contradiction. Their leaders, some of whom attended the prayer breakfast, openly urged Armenia’s authorities to release imprisoned clergy and to respect freedom of conscience. Their advocacy has stood in stark contrast to the carefully curated image the government attempted to project. That such reminders had to be delivered at a state-sponsored religious event is itself a revealing commentary on the moment.

What is at stake today is not only the fate of the Church, but the direction of the Armenian state. A society that suppresses its spiritual institutions and constrains its public discourse cannot claim to be pursuing a dignified peace. Peace requires consent, justice and confidence, not the silencing of those who disagree. The Church’s insistence on preserving national identity, defending displaced Armenians and upholding moral responsibility is not an obstacle to peace. It is the foundation of any durable settlement that respects the dignity of the Armenian people.

The prayer breakfast could have been an occasion for honest reflection and recognition of the pain the country continues to endure. Instead, it became an emblem of a widening gap between official rhetoric and lived reality. Armenia does not need ceremonial displays of piety while its clerics sit in prison cells. It needs transparency, accountability and a renewed commitment to the values that have historically sustained it.

Until those principles are restored, prayer offered in public halls will ring hollow. Armenia’s future will depend not on symbolic events, but on the courage to confront truth, defend national identity and uphold the institutions that speak for its people when power refuses to listen.