Protest against sects
A group of 200-300 citizens held a protest march from the presidential palace to the National Assembly building with signs reading "Against the Destructive Sectarian Movements" and "In Defense of the Armenian Apostolic Church".
The organizers say the action participants have collected 35,000 signatures, have attached them to the letters to Serzh Sargsyan and the NA Chairman demanding them to express a clear position on the religious organizations that are on the rise.
The action participants called on Serzh Sargsyan and Hovik Abrahamyan to restrict the activities of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" organization by the RA law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations".
The members of the group announced that the reason for the protest was the dispute between two followers of "Jehovah's Witnesses" and spiritual servant of the Holy Trinity Church, priest Yesayi Artenyan, during which the sectarians applied violence.
The participants of the march also distributed flyers to passers-by, informing them about the "danger of sects" and calling on them to avoid falling into "spiritual traps".
"A1+" wasn't able to find out who had organized the protest, who had collected 35,00 signatures, who had sent letters of protest to Serzh Sargsyan and the NA Chairman and who sponsored the action, taking into account the participants' shirts reading "Armenian Youth" and "I Am Apostolic".
The colorful flyers being distributed to passers-by featured the names of 20 religious organizations called "destructive sects" under the title "Dangerous". However, the number of copies and the publication were not mentioned on the flyers, and that is against the order prescribed by the law.
