A package of bills on protection of interests of Armenian Apostolic  Church

ArmInfo.A package of  bills "On Making Addenda to the Law" On the Meetings "and on Making  Amendments and Addenda to the Law on Administrative Offenses,  providing for a ban on organizing and holding meetings and assemblies  in the AAC buildings and territories against the church, was  submitted to the Armenian parliament.

The draft law also provides for administrative punishment in the form  of a fine for violation of these norms.  The document assumes at the  legislative level to provide state protection to the Catholicos of  all Armenians. Currently, only the president, prime minister and  speaker of parliament use this right. As stated in the statement of  one of the authors of the bill, the vice speaker of the parliament  Eduard Sharmazanov, such a need arose after, against the backdrop of  domestic political processes in the country, groups acting against  the church and national values intensified.

"Against the backdrop of recent political changes, the situation has  arisen when the mission of the Armenian Apostolic Church is being  questioned: the actions launched recently by some groups against our  church threaten its social and national-spiritual status and contain  the potential to form a negative attitude towards the church, that in  the created situation the authorities show themselves very passively,  while, within the framework of their spiritual and national  competence, the question of the role of the state in ensuring a  normal and safe the functioning of the Armenian Church remains  open.This situation creates fertile ground for encroachment on the  security and social status of the church.It should be stressed that  the Armenian Constitution recognizes the unique status of the AAC as  a national church, and I will remind those "human rights activists"  who will especially care about this bill , that in many advanced  European countries such laws have already been adopted, "the  statement said.