Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan was ordered released “immediately” from pre-trial detention by an Appeals Court Judge on March 5, making him the third senior clergy member of the Armenian Apostolic Church to have his detention eased in the past month. Following his release from the National Security Service after three months of pre-trial detention, he told… Read more »
Ain Ebel, a Christian village in South Lebanon, November 2024. csi On February 28, Israel and the United States attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. Iranian forces have retaliated by attacking U.S. allies across the region. On March 2, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, attacked Israel,… Read more »
The current surge of warfare ravaging the Middle East brings fresh threats to the existence of the region’s Christian communities and compounds the suffering of human beings regardless of their religious identity. It has already expanded beyond Iran to claim the lives of civilians in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Yemen, the Gulf States… Read more »
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… Read more »
MEDIA RELEASE “The use of the coercive powers of the state to interfere in the internal affairs of churches and other faith communities is abhorrent to the American tradition of religious freedom,” Dr. John Eibner, the president of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), told a well-attended briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “CSI asks the Trump… Read more »
Commentary by Joel Veldkamp A version of this article originally appeared in German in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper. On January 7, as Christians across Egypt gathered to celebrate Christmas on the Orthodox Calendar, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared at the Nativity of Christ Cathedral to present his holiday greetings to the worshippers there…. Read more »
Screenshot of Dr. Sasa in conversation with CSI in 2025. Commentary by Dr. Sasa Since the military coup in 2021, junta forces have unjustly arrested 30,000 plus civilian and political prisoners. More than 22,700, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, remain detained. The junta has also banned more than… Read more »
Bangladesh’s new prime minister, Tarique Rahman, greets supporters on his return from exile in December 2025. Source: x.com Bangladesh’s first new elected government after a nationwide uprising overthrew the previous administration in 2024 has now taken office. Elections held this month brought the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to power, prompting cautious hope among Christian… Read more »
The findings, released by a trusted contact of CSI, suggest that displacement is conditional rather than permanent, with governance conditions, not geography or ethnicity, determining whether Myanmar’s displaced see a future in their homeland. The survey, called True Choice Myanmar, comes amid Myanmar’s ongoing crisis, driven by popular resistance following the 2021 military takeover… Read more »
Criminal charges have been brought against the Catholicos. Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin YEREVAN – Armenia’s state prosecutor over the weekend ordered a travel ban against the Catholicos of All Armenians, preventing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church from presiding over a worldwide summit of bishops on February 16-19 in St. Pölten, Austria…. Read more »
