Government Rewrites Religious Law During War on Armenian Church

1. How We Found This

WAYBACK MACHINE PARLIAMENT.AM RECORDS

OWL systematically monitors Armenia's legislative activity through the Wayback Machine -- the same OSINT methodology that uncovered the 2.2 million phantom votes in the CEC's election data and the voter data breach that exposed Armenian citizens' personal information.

Parliament.am blocks access through Tor. This means anyone trying to monitor Armenian legislation anonymously -- journalists, researchers, citizens who fear retaliation -- cannot access the National Assembly's website directly. But the Wayback Machine has been caching parliament.am pages, and OWL reads those cached snapshots.

In the cached draft law listings, we found this:

Both authors are Civil Contract MPs -- members of the ruling party. Like the Electoral Code amendments OWL discovered in the same cache, this draft law was authored exclusively by ruling party members.

2. Why This Draft Law Is Explosive

SYSTEMATIC CAMPAIGN CHURCH-STATE WAR

This is not a routine legislative update. This draft law is being advanced in the middle of the most aggressive government campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church since the Soviet Union tried to destroy it in the 1930s.

OWL has documented this campaign extensively. Here is the timeline of what Pashinyan's government has done to the Church -- and where this draft law fits:

Date	Government Action Against the Church
June 2025	Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan arrested -- charged with "putsch/coup plot"
June 2025	Hundreds of masked, armed agents raid Etchmiadzin (Mother See of the Armenian Church)
June 2025	Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan arrested -- sentenced to 2 years in prison
October 2025	Shoghakat TV (Church television) loses public broadcasting status
October 2025	Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan + 12 clergymen arrested
October 2025	Fabricated intimate videos leaked against Archbishop Arshak (later proven fake)
October 29, 2025	Draft Law 80407 submitted -- amending religious organizations law
November 2025	Relatives of Catholicos Karekin II arrested
December 2025	Shoghakat TV liquidated entirely
December 2025	NSS declassifies selective "KGB documents" to discredit Church leadership
January 2026	Pashinyan signs "Church reform roadmap" -- creates council with himself as member
January 2026	Military chaplaincy abolished -- 42 priests and deacons removed from armed forces
January 15, 2026	Draft Law 80407 put on parliamentary agenda
February 2026	Church free land ownership ended
February 2026	Criminal case opened against Catholicos Karekin II -- travel ban imposed before Vienna synod

Look at the dates. The draft law was submitted on October 29, 2025 -- two days after Bishop Proshyan and 12 priests were arrested. It was placed on the parliamentary agenda on January 15, 2026 -- the same month the military chaplaincy was abolished and Pashinyan created a government-controlled "Church reform" council.

This is not coincidence. This is the legislative component of a systematic campaign.

3. What Is the "Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" Law?

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The law being amended is the legal foundation for how religious organizations operate in Armenia. It defines:

• Legal status of religious organizations -- how churches, mosques, temples, and other religious groups are registered and recognized
• The Armenian Apostolic Church's special status -- Armenia's Constitution recognizes the AAC's "exceptional mission" in Armenian national life. This law defines what that means in practice
• Religious education -- whether and how religion can be taught in schools
• Property and finance -- how religious organizations own property, receive donations, and manage finances
• Proselytism rules -- regulations on religious missionary activity
• Registration requirements -- what a religious organization must do to legally exist in Armenia

For 1,725 years, the Armenian Apostolic Church has been the spiritual and cultural anchor of the Armenian nation. It survived the Mongol invasions. It survived the Ottoman genocide. It survived seventy years of Soviet atheist state policy. Its legal status in independent Armenia reflects that history.

Changing this law changes the Church's legal position in Armenian society. And it is being done by a government that has spent the last two years systematically attacking the Church.

4. Pashinyan's "All Religions Are Equal" Doctrine

PUBLIC STATEMENTS IDEOLOGICAL SHIFT

Prime Minister Pashinyan has publicly stated that "all churches and all religions are equal." On its surface, this sounds like a principle of religious freedom. In context, it is something very different.

Armenia's Constitution (Article 18) explicitly acknowledges the "exceptional mission of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church as a national church in the spiritual life, development of the national culture, and preservation of the national identity of the people of Armenia." This is not a vague reference -- it is a constitutional recognition of a 1,725-year historical reality.

When Pashinyan says "all religions are equal," he is not expanding freedom. He is removing the constitutional distinction that recognizes the Armenian Church's unique role. In a country where one church has been the guardian of national identity through genocide, occupation, and Soviet persecution, "equality" is not elevation of other faiths -- it is the demotion of the national church.

And this is happening while:

• Pashinyan's family has alleged connections to the Word of Life evangelical sect (a US-based prosperity gospel movement with aggressive proselytism practices in post-Soviet countries)
• The government has simultaneously arrested Armenian Apostolic clergy while taking no comparable action against any other religious organization
• Anna Hakobyan (Pashinyan's wife) has publicly called clergymen "the country's chief pedophiles" and "chief maniacal perverts" -- without any clergyman being charged with pedophilia

5. What "Reforming" Religious Law Looks Like in Practice

DOCUMENTED EVENTS STATE VIOLENCE

To understand what this draft law means, you must understand what this government has already done to the Armenian Church without needing new legislation.

The Etchmiadzin Raid (June 27, 2025)

Hundreds of masked, armed security agents descended on the Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church at Etchmiadzin -- the spiritual center of the Armenian Church since the 4th century. Faithful believers physically blocked the police. The tocsin bells were rung -- a signal of existential danger that has been used for centuries to rally Armenians in moments of crisis. The agents were forced to retreat.

The Church compared the raid to the Soviet-era religious crackdowns of 1938. That comparison is not hyperbole. In 1938, the Soviet government arrested and executed Armenian clergy, confiscated Church property, and attempted to destroy the institutional Church. Pashinyan's government has arrested clergy, seized Church assets, and is now rewriting the law that governs the Church's existence.

Archbishop Bagrat -- Arrested for "Coup"

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan was arrested on June 25, 2025 and charged with plotting a putsch. His actual offense: leading peaceful protests against Pashinyan's territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. The government classified public protest by a religious leader as an attempted coup d'etat.

Archbishop Mikael -- 2 Years in Prison

Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan was arrested on June 27, 2025 -- the same day as the Etchmiadzin raid -- and charged with "public calls for seizure of power." He was sentenced to two years in prison. His crime: speaking publicly against the government's policies.

Fabricated Videos Against Archbishop Arshak

In October 2025, fabricated intimate videos were leaked against Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan. The videos were later proven to be fake. The government used fabricated evidence to publicly humiliate a religious leader. Archbishop Arshak was arrested in December 2025 and held until March 2026.

The Catholicos Himself -- Travel Ban

In February 2026, a criminal case was opened against Catholicos Karekin II -- the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. A travel ban was imposed, preventing him from attending the Vienna synod. The government is criminalizing the head of the institution that has led the Armenian spiritual nation for seventeen centuries.

6. The Four-Step Strategy

SYSTEMATIC CAMPAIGN

When you map the government's actions chronologically, a clear strategy emerges. This is not a series of unrelated events. It is a coordinated campaign to dismantle the Armenian Apostolic Church's role in Armenian public life.

Step 1: Intimidate and Decapitate (June-October 2025)

Arrest the Church's most prominent leaders. Raid the holiest site. Fabricate evidence. Send the message: opposition from the Church will be met with state force.

Step 2: Remove the Church from the Military (January 2026)

Abolish the military chaplaincy. Remove 42 priests and deacons from the armed forces. Cut the Church's connection to the institution that defends the nation.

Step 3: Remove the Church from Public Life (October 2025 - February 2026)

Liquidate Shoghakat TV -- the Church's only television channel. End the Church's free land ownership rights. Selectively declassify Soviet-era "KGB documents" to portray Church leaders as collaborators. Erase the Church from public space.

Step 4: Change the Legal Framework (October 2025 - present)

Submit Draft Law 80407 to amend the "Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" law. Place it on the parliamentary agenda. Use the ruling party's legislative majority to pass whatever changes serve the campaign.

Steps 1 through 3 are executive actions -- arrests, decrees, administrative decisions. They can be reversed by a future government. Step 4 is different. Step 4 changes the law itself. It makes the temporary permanent. It codifies the Church's diminished status into the legal structure of the state.

7. Who Is Watching

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

The international response to the government's campaign against the Armenian Church has been uneven:

• The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention warned of "growing repression" and called the situation "an example of how genocidal processes become internalized." The Lemkin Institute -- named after Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide" partly based on the Armenian experience -- does not use that language lightly.
• The World Council of Churches called for the protection of religious leaders' rights in Armenia.
• The Russian Orthodox Church accused the Armenian government of "engineering a schism" within the Armenian Apostolic Church.
• The US State Department has been largely silent -- despite the US government's stated commitment to religious freedom worldwide.
• US Vice President JD Vance visited Armenia in February 2026. He chose not to visit Etchmiadzin -- the spiritual center of the Armenian Church -- and instead endorsed Pashinyan.

Draft Law 80407 has received no international attention. No international body has been asked to review it. No Venice Commission opinion has been sought (the Venice Commission reviews electoral law changes, but the principle of international review applies equally to laws affecting religious freedom). The law is moving through parliament in a near-total information vacuum.

8. What 301 AD Means

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD -- more than a decade before the Roman Empire under Constantine. The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the oldest Christian institutions on Earth. For seventeen centuries, through Arab conquest, Mongol invasion, Persian rule, Ottoman genocide, and Soviet atheism, the Armenian Church survived. It was not just a religious institution. It was the institution that preserved Armenian language, culture, and national identity when the Armenian state did not exist.

During the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the Ottoman government targeted the Church alongside the people. Priests were executed. Churches were destroyed or converted to mosques. The Church's survival was inseparable from the survival of the Armenian people.

During the Soviet period, the Communist Party tried to destroy the Church through arrests, confiscation, and atheist propaganda. The Church survived by adapting -- reducing its public role while maintaining its spiritual mission.

In independent Armenia, the Church's constitutional recognition was an acknowledgment of this history. It was the country saying: we remember what this institution did for us when we had nothing else.

Now a government is rewriting the law that protects this recognition. And it is doing so while arresting the Church's leaders, raiding its holiest site, liquidating its media, and removing it from the military.

9. What We Don't Know Yet

UNANSWERED

As with the Electoral Code amendments, we have the metadata of this draft law but not the full text. We know it exists. We know who wrote it. We know when it was submitted and that it is on the agenda. We do not yet know the specific provisions.

The questions that need answers:

1. Does the draft law change the Armenian Apostolic Church's special constitutional status? If so, how?
2. Does it alter registration requirements for religious organizations? Making it easier to register could open the door to proselytizing groups. Making it harder could be used to deregister Church-affiliated organizations.
3. Does it affect religious education? The Church's role in education has already been targeted -- are these changes the legal formalization?
4. Does it change religious property rights? The government already ended Church free land ownership. Does this law go further?
5. Does it create new government oversight mechanisms? Pashinyan created a "Coordinating Council" for Church reform with himself as a member. Does this law give that council legal authority?
6. Does it benefit any specific religious group? Given the Pashinyan family's alleged connections to the Word of Life evangelical sect, does the law create favorable conditions for evangelical organizations?

We cannot answer these questions without the full text. Parliament.am blocks anonymous access. The Wayback Machine has the listing but not the PDF. We will continue attempting to recover it.

10. Help Us Get the Full Text

Draft Law 80407 is a proposed change to the legal framework governing religious freedom in Armenia. It is being advanced by the same government that has arrested archbishops, raided Etchmiadzin, and abolished the military chaplaincy. The Armenian public has the right to know exactly what this law says.

If you have access to the full text -- if you can access parliament.am directly, if you work in the National Assembly, if you have a copy from any source -- OWL wants to see it.

When we obtain the full text, we will publish a complete analysis of what the government is changing and what it means for the Armenian Church, for religious freedom, and for every Armenian who considers the Church part of their national identity.