Religion in Armenia
Encyclopedia
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
follow Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, which has existed in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
for over 1,700 years. Armenia has its own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
, which most Armenians follow. Christianity has a strong influence in the country, but there is a small presence of other religions too.
Armenian Apostolics (Oriental Orthodox)
Christianity was first introduced by the apostles BartholomewBartholomew
Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, and is usually identified as Nathaniel . He was introduced to Christ through St. Philip, another of the twelve apostles as per , where the name Nathaniel first appears. He is also mentioned as “Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee” in...
and Thaddeus
Saint Jude
Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus...
in the first century AD. Armenia became the first country to establish Christianity as its state religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
when, in an event traditionally dated to 301 A.D, St. Gregory the Illuminator convinced Tiridates III, the king
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of Armenia, to convert
Convert
The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...
to Christianity. Before this, the dominant religion was Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
and to a smaller degree paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
.
Armenian Catholics
Smaller groups belong to the Armenian Catholic ChurchArmenian Catholic Church
|- |The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church sui juris in union with the other Eastern Rite, Oriental Rite and Latin Rite Catholics who accept the Bishop of Rome as spiritual leader of the Church. It is regulated by Eastern canon law...
(an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with Rome).
Armenian Evangelicals
There are also small communities of Protestant Armenians of various denominations, as missionaries converted a number of Armenians.Other denominations and sects
The Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
have a presence as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims over 2,000 adherents in Armenia at the end of 2005 (lds.org website).
Armenian Paganism
There is a strong and growing ethnic (ReconstructionisticPolytheistic reconstructionism
Polytheistic reconstructionism is an approach to Neopaganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and gathering momentum in the 1990s to 2000s...
) Neopagan movement in Armenia. Adherents call themselves Hetans or Hetanos (հեթանոս). The movement traces its origins in the work of the early XX century ideologue Garegin Nzhdeh and his doctrine of Tseghakron.
In 1991 it was institutionalised by the armenologist Slak Kakosyan under the umbrella organisation called Armenian Hetan Alliance. The doctrine and mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of the new Pagan movement is codified into a book, the Ukhtagirk
Ukhtagirk
Ukhtagirk is a literary work, a book, written by Slak Kakosyan, a political dissident in Soviet Armenia and an Armenologist, and the founder of Arvordineri Ukht organization in Armenia...
, written by Kakosyan himself. The association claims roughly 3,000 members, even though a 2005 survey puts the number of unaffiliated Armenian Hetans at 32% of the population (the remaining being constituted by a 37% of Christians and a 24% of non-religious).
Armenian Neopagans worship the gods of the traditional Armenian pantheon: Haik
Haik
Hayk Nahapet is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. His story is told in the History of Armenia attributed to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi .- Etymology :...
, Aray
Aray
Aray is a war god worshipped by the pre-Christian Armenians. Some traditions suggest that he was also a dying-and-rising god....
, Barsamin
Barsamin
Barsamin is a weather or sky god among the pre-Christian Armenians. He is probably derived from the Semitic god Baal Shamin....
, Aralez
Aralez
Aralez is a town in the Ararat Province of Armenia.- References :* – World-Gazetteer.com*...
, Anahit
Anahit
Anahit was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. By the 5th century BC she was the main deity in Armenia along with Aramazd.- Temples dedicated to Anahit :...
, Mihr, Astghik
Astghik
In the earliest prehistoric period Asdghig, commonly referred to as Asya, Astghik, or Astlik, had been worshipped as the Armenian pagan deity of fertility and love , later the skylight had been considered her personification, and she had been the wife or lover of Vahagn...
, Nuneh, Tir
TIR
Tir, tir or TIR may mean:* The French term for Schützenfest, a target-shooting competition* Tir , the fourth month in the Iranian calendar* Occasional spelling of the Old Norse theonym Tyr...
, Nar
NAR
-Places:* Nar Jaffar Khan, a town and union council in Bannu District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan* Nar, Nepal, a village development committee in Manang District in the Gandaki Zone of northern Nepal...
, Amanor, Spandaramet, Gissaneh, with a particular emphasis on the cult of the solar god Vahagn
Vahagn
Vahagn was a god worshiped anciently and historically in Armenia. Some time in his existence, he formed a "triad" with Aramazd and Anahit. Vahagn was identified with the Greek Heracles. The priests of Vahévahian temple, who claimed Vahagn as their own ancestor, placed a statue of the Greek hero...
. They have re-consecrated the Temple of Garni
Garni Temple
Garni is a temple complex located in the Kotayk Province of Armenia, situated approximately 32 km southeast from Yerevan.The first traces of human occupation date back to the 3rd millennium BC and are concentrated in an easily defensible terrain at one of the bends of the Azat river. In the 8th...
(a Hellenistic-style temple rebuilt in 1975), originally a temple to Mihr, to Vahagn, and they use it for regular worship and as a center of activity.
The movement is strongly associated to Armenian nationalism
Armenian nationalism
Armenian nationalism in the modern period has its roots in the romantic nationalism of Mikayel Chamchian and generally defined as the creation of a free, independent and united Armenia formulated as the Armenian Cause . Armenian national awakening developed in the 1880s in the context of the...
, since it finds its foundations in the desire of Armenians to recover their pure ancestral cultural identity
Cultural identity
Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....
. It finds some support from nationalist political parties of Armenia, particularly the Armenian Republican Party and the Union of Armenian Aryans. Ashot Navasardyan, the founder of the Armenian Republican Party, which is also the currently leading party of the country, was a Pagan himself, as many other members of the party are.
Judaism
JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
have a historic presence in Armenia. During the Soviet years, Armenia was considered to be one of the most tolerant republics for Jews in the Soviet Union. Currently there are an estimated 750 Jews in the country, a remnant of a once larger community. Most left Armenia for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
after the collapse of the Soviet Union because of inadequate services. Still, despite the small numbers, a high intermarriage rate and relative isolation, a lot of enthusiasm exists to help the community meet its needs.
Islam
Azeris and Kurds living in Armenia traditionally practiced IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, but most Azeris have fled the country due to the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
. Approximately 1,000 Muslims live in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
, and one 18th century Mosque remains open for Friday prayers.Islam in Armenia consists mostly of Azeris and Muslim Kurds. In 2009, the Pew Research Center estimated that less than 0.1% of the population, or about 1,000 people, were Muslims.[1]
Armenians did not convert to Islam in large numbers. During the Arabic conquest, Islam came to the Armenians however, almost all Armenians never converted to Islam, since Christians were not required to convert by Muslim law, and the absence of heavy taxation also hindered this. The story was similar in the Ottoman Empire.
During 1988-1991 the overwhelming majority of Muslim population consisting of Azeris and Muslim Kurds fled the country as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There is also a significant community of Yazidi Kurds (50-70,000 people), who were not affected by this conflict. Since the early 1990s, Armenia has also attracted diverse esoteric and sectarian groups. [2]
Armenia continues to be one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in Europe. Armenian 97.9%, Russian 0.5%, Kurds 1.3%, other 0.3% (2001)
Yazidism
About 2% of Armenia's population, mostly ethnic Kurds living in the western part of the country, follow the ancient YazidiYazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
religion. Many Yazidis came to Armenia and Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to escape religious persecution.
Baháí Faith
The Bahá'í FaithBahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
in Armenia begins with some involvements in the banishments and execution of the Báb
Báb
Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four claimed to be the promised Qá'im . After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate"...
, the Founder of the Bábí Faith, viewed by Bahá'ís as a precursor religion. The same year of the execution of the Báb the religion was introduced into Armenia. During the period of Soviet policy of religious oppression, the Bahá'ís in Armenia lost contact with the Bahá'ís elsewhere. However in 1963 communities were identified in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
and Artez
Artez
Artez Institute of the Arts is a Dutch vocational university with branches in Arnhem, Enschede, and Zwolle. Artez is officially styled as ArtEZ with the A representing Arnhem, E for Enschede, and Z for Zwolle...
. Following Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies of Armenia form in 1991 and Armenian Bahá'ís elected their first National Spiritual Assembly in 1995. As of 2004 the Bahá'ís claim about 200 members in Armenia but as of 2001 Operation World
Operation World
Operation World is a reference book and prayer guide, begun by Patrick Johnstone and continued by Jason Mandryk, both from WEC International. Operation World is published by , and produced by...
estimated about 1,400.
Freedom of religion
The Constitution as amended in December 2005 provides for freedom of religion; however, the law places some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of minority religious groups, and there were some restrictions in practice. The Armenian (Apostolic) Church, which has formal legal status as the national church, enjoys some privileges not available to other religious groups.Some religious denominations reported occasional discrimination by mid- or low-level government officials but found high-level officials to be tolerant. Jehovah's Witnesses reported that judges sentenced them to longer prison terms for evasion of alternative military service than in the past, although the sentences were still within the range allowed by law. Societal attitudes toward some minority religious groups were ambivalent, and there were reports of societal discrimination directed against members of these groups.
See also
- Islam in ArmeniaIslam in ArmeniaIslam in Armenia consists mostly of temporary residents from Iran and other countries. There is no native population reported as Muslim.In 2009, the Pew Research Center estimated that less than 0.1% of the population, or about 1,000 people, were Muslims....
- Judaism in Armenia
- Religion by country
- Roman Catholicism in ArmeniaRoman Catholicism in ArmeniaThe Roman Catholic Church in Armenia is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome....