The National Security Service building in Yerevan, Armenia, where Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan is being held. csi
At the start of February a delegation from Christian Solidarity International (CSI) undertook a fact-finding mission to Yerevan related to the Armenian government’s crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church. It came as religious freedom experts and NGOs gathered in Washington DC for the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, and ahead of a planned visit by U.S. Vice President JD Vance to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
During their visit the CSI team were able to meet with jailed Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, one of four bishops who have been detained by the Armenian government in the last eight months, and were encouraged to find him in excellent health and good spirits. The archbishop entrusted CSI with two letters: one for the Religious Freedom Summit, the other for U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
Church will continue to speak out
“I am incarcerated today for a simple reason,” Archbishop Bagrat told the IRF Summit. “My offense is to speak an unwelcome truth—that the Christian Armenian nation faces an existential threat.”
According to the church leader, the government’s campaign against the church is part of a larger effort by Turkey and Azerbaijan to “turn Armenia into a vassal state.” “A crucial part of this project is to rob the Armenian Apostolic Church of its ability to speak with an independent voice in society,” he said.
The archbishop told CSI, however, that the church was not prepared to stand by silently, but would continue to speak out—including on behalf of the 150,000 Armenians who were driven from their homeland of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan.
In an escalation of the situation, the Armenian government on February 14 brought criminal charges against the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II. It also issued a travel ban against him, preventing him from attending a long-awaited assembly of bishops in Austria.
Artsakh government urges implementation of Swiss Peace Initiative
Meanwhile the acting president of the government-in-exile of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), Ashot Danielyan, has called on Switzerland to make the Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh a reality. In a letter to Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis dated February 2, Danielyan praised the Swiss parliament for adopting a motion on hosting a peace forum for Nagorno Karabakh.
According to the acting president, the motion constituted a “rare and meaningful act of moral clarity in an international environment otherwise marked by diplomatic inertia.”
Passed in March 2025, the motion mandates the Swiss government with convening a peace forum between Azerbaijan and the representatives of the Armenian people of Nagorno Karabakh to negotiate the safe return of the displaced Armenian population.
The Artsakh government’s appeal is backed by a non-partisan committee of 19 Swiss parliamentarians and CSI.
Suleiman Khalil marks one year in a Syrian jail
On February 9, human rights groups In Defense of Christians (IDC) and CSI issued a joint statement calling for the immediate release of Suleiman Khalil, the former mayor of the Christian-majority town of Sadad in Syria.
Noting that February 8 marked one year since Khalil was detained by the Syrian Transitional Government, the groups recalled that until now, “He has not been charged with any crime. He has not been allowed access to a lawyer or to any evidence concerning his case.”
IDC and CSI express grave concerns about the former mayor’s treatment in prison, adding that, “There is reason to believe he has been tortured. His family has been prevented from bringing him religious items, such as a cross necklace and a Bible.”
Khalil, who is considered a hero for successfully organizing the defense of Sadad against ISIS in 2015, was detained three months after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The groups said Khalil’s case was “a credibility test” for the new Syrian government of former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa, which has repeatedly promised that Christians will be safe in the new Syria. “The persecution of a Christian politician whose only discernable offense is defending his town against an ISIS attack indicates otherwise.”
On February 10, religious freedom expert Nadine Maenza brought Khalil’s case before the U.S. Congress. In written testimony submitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Maenza called Khalil’s imprisonment a case of “arbitrary detention,” noting that he has been “held by Syrian authorities for a year, incommunicado and without charges.”
CSI invites supporters to visit an online platform it has launched to send a message urging the Syrian government to release Suleiman Khalil without delay.
