Avetik Ishkhanyan and Komitas Hovnanyan’s heated debate over relations between Armenian Apostolic Church and the state

In today's world, in secular states, the state must be neutral with respect to the religions. Avetik Ishkhanyan, president of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, notes in this context that the nation living in the country can have different religious beliefs and the state should maintain neutrality and respect the religious beliefs of all people. “In our case, the state seems to have special patronage over the Armenian Apostolic Church,” he says. Ishkhanyan believes that this is an unequal attitude towards atheists and those who follow other religious groups.

Avetik Ishkhanyan's opponent, Archimandrite of the Mother See, Komitas Vardapet, opposes and asks, if there are minorities living in the country following this or that religion, then should the majority concede? “In this case if Yazidis, Kurds, Jews, Poles, Turks live with us, so why do we speak Armenian?" Komitas Vardapet asks.  Find the details in the program “Paradigm”.