Erevanets. See below selective translations from the posts of Caucasian Knot's bloggers. See more in the Russian version

I've recently discovered that Nagorno-Karabakh had enacted a new law that forbids preaching any other faith, except for the Armenian Apostolic Church with its traditional organizations, in the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

To make the picture clear, here's a brief historical reference:

Prior to declaration of independence, Nagorno-Karabakh (at that time – the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region) was the only administrative formation in the Soviet Union, which had not a single working church, and ancient temples were used as warehouses. According to Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, primate of the Artsakh Eparchy, in the beginning of the 20^th century Karabakh had 118 churches and 12 monasteries in its territory, but after 1930 they were closed, and churchmen were either exiled or executed.

The operation of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Karabakh was restored in 1989 by restoration of the Artsakh Eparchy. For the past 20 years, more than 30 churches were reconstructed and built in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The freedom of religion has led to appearance and then to increase of the number of sects in the Republic. Starting from 1992, when active warfare took place in Karabakh, a number of other religious organizations have appeared here.

Now, according to the data of the National Minorities and Religious Department at the NKR Government, 11 religious organizations work in the country, whose "head" offices have state registration in Armenia. By approximate estimates, they enlist 3500 persons, of whom over 2000 are Jehovah's Witnesses, including, according to some sources, 280 persons, who are professional propagandists funded from abroad.

Such rapid growth of the number of religious organizations, which looks especially impressive, if we remember the area of this small country and its population of about 140,000 cannot but cause concern. Moreover, if we know that all this "variety show" is far from being traceless for the population of Karabakh. For example, within a couple of recent years, 3 persons were convicted in Karabakh, who refused to go to army on religious motives. In January 2009, baptist Gagik Mirzoyan was demobilized from the Karabakh army; he served his term but refused to take the oath. He was issued his military ID with a dash in the column "Oath".

On September 5, 2005, soldier Gagik Mirzoyan, born in 1986, a native of Chailu village, Martakert Diastrict of NKR, after 9 months of service in the NKR Defence Army (DA), was convicted to 1 year of imprisonment under Article 364, part 1, of the Criminal Code of NKR for refusal to take the military oath. Mirzoyan, a member of the religious organization "Evangelical Christians-Baptists", explained his refusal by the fact that the Bible forbids swearing. However, he was ready to continue his service at the DA of the NKR without taking the oath.

The 2007 annual report on the freedom of religion of the US Department of State includes a chapter on situation in Karabakh. The report states that Areg Ovannisyan, member of Jehovah's Witnesses, who rejected his military service because of his religious beliefs and was sentenced in 2005 to 4 years of imprisonment, is still in custody.

And, probably, with the aim to cope somehow with the growing number of all sort of Jehovah's Witnesses, the NKR Government decided to adopt a new Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", which came into force in January 2009. According to Article 8 of the Law, in the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic it is forbidden to preach for any other religious organization, except for the Armenian Apostolic Church with its traditional organizations.

Certainly, it caused a wave of the protest from the religious organizations, which had before successfully professed in Karabakh. Now, it would be nice to understand, firstly, whether such law has any moral right to exist and whether it will not be criticised by the PACE and other international structures. And, secondly, how much efficient it can be.