Russia wouldn’t want Church in Armenia subjected to baseless attacks, says Lavrov

The conflict surrounding the Armenian Apostolic Church must be resolved; Russia is concerned that the Church should not be subjected to baseless attacks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers.

According to Lavrov, the issue was discussed during the meeting, and participants expressed serious concerns about the situation unfolding in Armenia.

“It is clear that this is an internal matter of our neighbors, but the attacks on the canonical, thousand-year-old Armenian Apostolic Church are deeply troubling. The Church has traditionally been one of the main pillars of Armenian society, and we would not want to see it subjected to unfounded attacks—essentially without any serious basis,” Lavrov stated.

He added that Russia is interested in seeing the situation resolved as soon as possible, based on full respect for Armenia’s Constitution, the rights of believers, and, in fact, the rights of all individuals. Lavrov also noted that the movement to defend the Church is “very, very serious” within Armenian society.