Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan Addresses US Vice President Vance from Yerevan Prison
Yerevan, February 9, 2026 – Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan has penned an open letter to US Vice President Vance from the Yerevan-Kentron Penitentiary, where he is currently held as a political prisoner. The letter, sent on the eve of Vice President Vance’s anticipated visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, details alleged human rights abuses, the persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and makes a fervent appeal for the release of political prisoners and the safe return of Armenians displaced from Artsakh.
A Voice from Imprisonment
Archbishop Galstanyan begins his letter by welcoming Vice President Vance “in the name of our crucified and resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ,” noting that this greeting comes from a political prisoner of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s regime. He asserts that Pashinyan has employed “communist-era methods” to track, fabricate evidence against, interrogate, slander, and imprison him.
“Why? The answer is simple,” writes the Archbishop. “I have non-violently, in the spirit of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., spoken the truth inconvenient to power on all roads, big and small, in Armenia.” He states that his actions stem from his fundamental right to bring his Christian faith and testimony into the public sphere, hoping that the Armenian people and state would remain faithful to their historical Christian tradition during this national crisis.
Persecution of the Armenian Church and Political Prisoners
Archbishop Galstanyan emphasizes that he is not alone in his plight. He highlights the imprisonment of other individuals, including Armenian Apostolic Church clergymen Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, and Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, for similar reasons. Samvel Karapetyan, a lay benefactor of the Church, has also been imprisoned, and his company has been “nationalized in Soviet-style” by the state.
According to the Archbishop, these imprisonments are part of Prime Minister Pashinyan’s campaign to establish state control over the Armenian Apostolic Church. Galstanyan alleges that Pashinyan is violating the Constitution and all principles of religious freedom by demanding the replacement of the Catholicos of All Armenians, the head of the worldwide Armenian Church, with an individual under his influence.
The Archbishop explains that the Church’s “crime” is its defense of its flock. “We speak about the right of Armenians of Artsakh to return to their homes after they were subjected to ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan two years ago. We demand the return of our hostages held in Azerbaijan. We speak against handing over our homeland and its sovereignty to Azerbaijan.” He points out that both Prime Minister Pashinyan and the Azerbaijani government have labeled the Church as an “obstacle to peace” for these actions.
The Church’s Enduring Role and a Warning to Europe
Archbishop Galstanyan underscores the Armenian Apostolic Church’s 1700-year history of preserving the Armenian nation, the world’s first Christian nation. For much of this history, the Church has been the sole national institution uniting Armenians. He argues that the Church is under attack precisely because it defends Armenian identity, asserting that efforts are underway to strip Armenia of its Christian heritage and integrate it into the Turkic, Islamic world of Turkey and Azerbaijan as an economic and military vassal.
Drawing a parallel, the Archbishop reminds Vice President Vance of his own warnings to the European Union against “civilizational suicide” by abandoning Europe’s Christian identity and opening its borders to those who do not share its Judeo-Christian values. “This is precisely what the Prime Minister of Armenia is planning and implementing in Armenia today,” he states.
A Call for True Peace and Justice
Archbishop Galstanyan acknowledges that throughout history, there have been Armenians, even clergy, who became tools of the Church’s persecutors, often in the name of peace. He quotes Jeremiah 8:11: “‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” He asserts that this is the situation in Armenia today.
He notes President Trump’s significant investment of time and political capital in establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, he warns that there can be no peace if the Armenian nation ceases to exist. “If the Armenian Church is successfully neutralized, nothing less than the existence of the Armenian nation will be endangered,” he writes.
In anticipation of Vice President Vance’s visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, Archbishop Galstanyan outlines two crucial steps for achieving “truly historic and lasting peace”:
- Ensuring the release of Armenian Christian political prisoners held in Yerevan and Baku.
- Obtaining guarantees for the safe return of 150,000 Armenian Christians forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, with full observance of their fundamental human rights.
The Archbishop concludes his letter by invoking the words of the Prophet Isaiah, read by Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). He expresses his hope that this Spirit will guide Vice President Vance in his interactions with the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Source: mamul.am
