Archbishop Bagrat calls on Vance to act on captives

PanARMENIAN.Net - Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan has sent an open letter to U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance from the “Yerevan-Kentron” penitentiary, urging him to intervene in the issue of returning Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan.

He also stressed that “the Church is under attack today because it defends Armenian identity.”

“Using time-tested methods inherited from his communist predecessors, Prime Minister Pashinyan has ordered his security apparatus to monitor me, falsify evidence, interrogate, defame, and imprison me. Why? The answer is clear. I have spoken inconvenient truths, in a nonviolent manner, in the spirit of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., on every road of Armenia,” the letter reads.

He said this was part of his fundamental human right to express his Christian faith and testimony publicly, hoping the Armenian people and state would remain faithful to their Christian heritage in times of national crisis.

“I am not alone. Others have been imprisoned by Pashinyan’s regime for nearly the same reasons.” Among them, he named Armenian clergymen: Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, and Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, as well as philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, whose company, he said, was nationalized by the state “in Soviet style.”

The archbishop said their imprisonment is part of Prime Minister Pashinyan’s campaign to bring the Armenian Apostolic Church under state control, violating the Constitution and principles of religious freedom, including efforts to replace the Catholicos of All Armenians with someone loyal to his government.

“The reason is simple: the Church defends its flock. We speak for the right of Armenians from Artsakh to return home after being ethnically cleansed by Azerbaijan two years ago. We demand the return of our hostages from Azerbaijan. We speak out against handing over our homeland and sovereignty to Baku.”

He wrote that for these reasons, both Pashinyan’s government and Azerbaijan label the Church an “obstacle to peace.”

“But the Armenian Apostolic Church is simply continuing what it has done for 1,700 years, preserving the Armenian nation, the world’s first Christian nation.”

He warned of a broader agenda to erase Armenia’s Christian heritage and integrate it as a “military and economic vassal” into the Turkic-Islamic world led by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

He referenced Vance’s earlier criticism of the EU for its “civilizational suicide” by rejecting its Christian roots and urged him to recognize similar threats in Armenia.

“This is exactly what Prime Minister Pashinyan is planning and implementing in Armenia today.”

Quoting the Bible, “They say ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11), he warned that true peace cannot come at the cost of the Church and national survival.

“President Trump has invested great time and political capital in establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But there can be no peace if the Armenian nation ceases to exist. If the Armenian Church is neutralized, so too is the Armenian people’s existence.”

The archbishop concluded: “I know you are soon visiting Armenia and Azerbaijan. You can greatly contribute to a truly historic and lasting peace if you:

• secure the release of Armenian Christian political prisoners held in Yerevan and Baku, and
• obtain guarantees for the safe return of 150,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, with full respect for their fundamental human rights.”

Former Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Other life sentences have been handed down to former Defense Army Commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, his deputy Davit Manukyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, and former National Assembly Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan. Ex-presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan received 20-year sentences. Others, including Madat Babayan, Melikset Pashayev, and several officials, were sentenced to terms ranging from 15 to 19 years.