Religious Competition in Armenia and Georgia: Shifting Power and Tradition in the Orthodox Christian World

Given the controversy surrounding the latest conflict between the Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches in Tbilisi, and as minority religious groups including Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Roman Catholics argue their case for registering as religious entities, a search on Google came up with an interesting academic paper by Ani Sarkissian at the University of California.

Touching upon religious freedom, democratization and human rights, Religious Competition in Armenia and Georgia: Shifting Power and Tradition in the Orthodox Christian World is an interesting read.

In this paper, I argue that is that it is not religion itself—religious doctrine, beliefs, or practice—that affects political outcomes. Rather, it is how different groups in transitioning countries use religion to gain power and influence outcomes. I argue that there is nothing peculiar to Eastern Christianity that requires that it oppose democracy. Rather, it is the confluence of Eastern Christian religious organizations with nationalist sentiments and movements that has made them at different times supporters of liberalization and opponents of it. […]

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[…] given the fact that advantages for the Georgian Orthodox Church were guaranteed at the constitutional level, it is difficult to argue that a law on religion would not improve the situation of religious minorities in Georgia. Without such a law, groups are unable to own property and function as public entities. Moreover, because of the number of advantages given to the Georgian Orthodox Church, minorities have no recourse in claims against the majority Church.

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[…] the Georgian Orthodox Church allies itself with more conservative nationalist groups within the country to push its agenda and protest the opening of the marketplace to new religious movements.

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Stiopa Safarian, policy analyst at the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) described the religious situation in Armenia as part of a bigger problem of not recognizing the rights of minorities in the country. But this attitude does not characterize the Armenians alone. A comparative study of public opinion polls taken in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan in 2004 found that people in the Caucasus are intolerant of other ethnic groups and have a limited understanding of the role of democracy in resolving conflicts.

[…] During a visit to Armenia in 2005, I interviewed leaders of several NGOs in Armenia. The consensus among them was that the typical Armenian citizen does not understand the concepts of human rights or democracy. 22 Some claimed that the typical Armenian understands human rights to contain western, anti-national, and anti-traditional ideas such as the protection of the rights of homosexuals and other ideas that serve to erode Armenian culture. By democracy, most noted that Armenians understand the concept to entail not much more than voting for the president, or as one interview subject noted, electing the “king.” These groups are working to increase awareness of violations of human rights taking place in the country and to educate people on how to be participatory citizens. However, they remain on the margins of society, with power concentrated among government leaders and oligarchs.

The paper is available online in PDF format here.