Church under threat’: Armenian archbishop’s message from prison to IRF Summit

Armenian Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan sent a letter from prison to the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, warning that the Armenian Apostolic Church, recognized as one of the world's oldest Christian bodies, is under threat and calling on U.S. Vice President JD Vance to intervene.

His message was delivered by the Switzerland-based group Christian Solidarity International days after the Armenian government escalated legal actions against the church’s leadership, even as the IRF Summit convened this week with faith-based leaders, policy advocates and NGOs focused on rising global restrictions on religion.

CSI’s President John Eibner read the archbishop’s letter aloud at a press conference in Yerevan, at the end of a joint visit to Galstanyan in prison with Swiss parliamentarian Erich Vontobel.

The “simple truth is that the Christian Armenian nation faces an existential threat,” reads the archbishop’s letter, addressed to former U.S. Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and IRF Summit Participants.

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