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Armenia

Also Known As Armenian
Asia

Armenia traces its Christian identity to the conversion of King Trdat by Gregory the Illuminator, traditionally dated to 301 and widely described as the first adoption of Christianity as a state religion. The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the Oriental Orthodox communions that did not accept the Council of Chalcedon in 451, has its see at Etchmiadzin and holds the allegiance of the great majority of Armenians. The invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots around 405 was undertaken to make scripture readable in Armenian and became the foundation of a national literature. The genocide of 1915 destroyed the Armenian population and church infrastructure of Anatolia, and the memory of it is central to religious as well as national identity. The constitution recognises the exclusive historical mission of the Apostolic Church while guaranteeing freedom of religion.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
Privileged Never Established 3
The constitution recognizes the exclusive historical mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as the national church, holding privileges in education and public ceremony no other religious body has, while guaranteeing freedom of religion generally.
State Funding Mechanism
Armenia funds no religious organization from the state budget, including the Armenian Apostolic Church, despite the constitution recognizing the Church's exclusive mission as the national church in the spiritual life, national culture and national identity of the Armenian people. The constitution bars the state from establishing an official religion or affording preferential treatment to any religion, including through the use of public funds to support religious organizations, so the Church's special constitutional recognition is honorific rather than financial. 4
Apostasy or Blasphemy Law
Armenia's Criminal Code carries no offense titled blasphemy. Article 226, part two, point one, punishes incitement of national, racial or religious hatred carried out through violence, public statements, the mass media or abuse of an official position, with a fine of 200,000 to 500,000 drams or imprisonment of three to six years; the law separately prohibits, without defining, so called soul hunting, a term covering both proselytism and forced conversion, and bars members of the armed forces and security services from belonging to a religious organization, a bar the Constitutional Court upheld in 2023. 3
Registration or Recognition Regime
Armenian law does not require a religious community to register in order to worship, but registration is required to hold property, rent premises, or open a bank account in the community's own name. The Office of the State Registrar grants it on an assessment from the Prime Minister's Division of Religious Affairs and National Minorities, applying a legal standard that the community rest on "historically recognized holy scripture" and be "free from materialism," terms the law leaves undefined; the requirement does not apply to a faith tied to a recognized national minority, including Assyrian, Kurdish, Russian and Yezidi communities. A refused community may appeal through the courts. 3
Ban or Official Watchlist
Armenia bars employees of the National Security Service and members of the armed forces from belonging to, or founding, a religious organization; the Constitutional Court upheld the bar in 2023, reasoning that membership in a religious group carries an obligation to proselytize incompatible with security service employment. In Nagorno-Karabakh, proselytizing is lawful only for the Armenian Apostolic Church, the country's majority faith, closing the practice to every other religious community there. 3
Concordat Basis
Armenia has no concordat with the Holy See. Article 18 of the 2015 Constitution instead recognizes the exclusive mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as the national church in the spiritual life of the Armenian people, in the development of national culture and in the preservation of national identity, while Article 17 separately guarantees the separation of religious organizations from the State. 5
Demographics
Religious Composition
Around 92 per cent belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the highest single denomination shares in the world, with small Armenian Catholic, evangelical and Yazidi minorities (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1
Government
Capital
Yerevan 2
Government Type
parliamentary democracy; note - constitutional changes adopted in December 2015 transformed the government to a parliamentary system 2
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 2
Established Year
1991 2
21 September 1991 (from the Soviet Union); notable earlier dates: 321 B.C. (Kingdom of Armenia established under the Orontid Dynasty), A.D. 884 (Armenian Kingdom reestablished under the Bagratid Dynasty); 1198 (Cilician Kingdom established); 28 May 1918 (Democratic Republic of Armenia declared)
Geography
Latitude
40.1 degrees north 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
45 degrees east 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Status
Legal Status
The constitution guarantees freedom of religion while recognising the exclusive historical mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as the national church, which holds privileges in education and public ceremony no other body has. 3
Classification
State Funding of Religion
State-Preferred or State-Supported Religions 6
Government type (class)
Parliamentary republic 2
Location
Location of Armenia Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Learn More
Religion and History in Armenia

Armenia's claim to be the first Christian state rests on the conversion of King Trdat III by Gregory the Illuminator, traditionally dated to 301, which places it ahead of Constantine's empire by a decade or more. The date is debated by historians, some preferring 314, but the priority is not seriously in question. What followed mattered as much as the conversion.

Around 405 Mesrop Mashtots devised an alphabet for Armenian so that scripture could be read in the language people spoke, and the translation that resulted is called the Queen of Translations; the alphabet made possible a continuous literature and is the reason Armenian identity survived the loss of the Armenian state for most of the next fifteen centuries. In 451 the Armenian church, occupied that year with the battle of Avarayr against Sasanian Persia over an attempt to impose Zoroastrianism, did not attend the Council of Chalcedon and subsequently rejected its formula on the natures of Christ, placing Armenia among the Oriental Orthodox churches alongside the Copts, Syriacs and Ethiopians. The monasteries carved into gorges at Geghard and Tatev, and the khachkars, intricately carved cross stones of which tens of thousands survive, are the visible remains of that long medieval church.

Etchmiadzin, 1915 and the Church as a Nation

The Mother See at Etchmiadzin is said to stand where Gregory the Illuminator saw Christ strike the ground with a golden hammer, and it has been the seat of the Catholicos for most of the period since. Its authority is complicated by a second see, the Catholicosate of Cilicia at Antelias in Lebanon, which was reconstituted by survivors of the genocide and which administers dioceses in the Middle East and parts of the diaspora; relations between the two were poisoned during the Cold War, when Etchmiadzin operated under Soviet control, and have been repaired only partially.

The genocide of 1915 is inseparable from Armenian religion because it destroyed the church of historic Armenia: bishops and priests were killed with their communities, thousands of churches and monasteries in Anatolia were seized, converted or left to collapse, and the cathedral at Ani and the church of the Holy Cross on Akhtamar stand in Turkey as ruins and a museum.

The annual commemoration on 24 April is a religious observance as much as a national one, and in 2015 the church canonised the victims collectively, an act without close precedent in scale. The constitution recognises the exclusive mission of the Apostolic Church as the national church, which grants it access to schools and public ceremony and has drawn complaints from evangelical and Jehovah's Witness minorities.

Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Caucasus, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Caucasus
Western Asia, Regions
Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

Associated With

Achaemenid Empire (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "and for the religion spreading from Armenia through Asia Minor and the Levant during the forty-five-year reign of Artaxerxes II, 405 to 358 BCE."

Source Achaemenid Empire (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Armenia 2022 Census: Over 95% Follow Armenian Apostolic Church (Panorama.am), Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "Panorama.am (PAN) news report on Armenia's 2022 national census, stating that 95.4 percent of Armenia's population, 2,793,042 people, identified as followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church..."

Source Armenia 2022 Census: Over 95% Follow Armenian Apostolic Church (Panorama.am)
Christianity, Religions

The Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox communion, holds the allegiance of about 92 per cent of the population and is recognised by the constitution as the national church.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
Christianity Reaches Aksum, Spread Events

This source names Armenia directly: "Christian states anywhere, alongside Armenia."

Source Ancient Churches of Ethiopia: Fourth-Fourteenth CenturiesDavid W. Phillipson
L'Eglise armenienne et le grand schisme d'Orient, Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "Garsoian's 1999 study from Peeters, is a scholarly history of the Armenian Church's separation from the wider Byzantine communion, by a leading historian of medieval Armenia."

Source L'Eglise armenienne et le grand schisme d'OrientNina G. Garsoian
Religion in Armenia (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "Wikipedia article on religion in Armenia, community edited, carrying a census results table citing the Republic of Armenia's 2011 census (Statistical Committee, 2011, page 7), which recorded..."

Source Religion in Armenia (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "scholarly two volume history of the Armenian people from antiquity to the modern period, with chapters from named specialist contributors, edited by Richard Hovannisian, covering the Armenian..."

Source The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern TimesRichard G. Hovannisian (ed.)
The Church of Armenia: Her History, Doctrine, Rule, Discipline, Liturgy, Literature and Existing Condition, Sources

This source names Armenia directly: "The Church of Armenia, Her History, Doctrine, Rule, Discipline, Liturgy, Literature and Existing Condition, written by the Armenian Church Patriarch Malachia Ormanian and translated by G."

Source The Church of Armenia: Her History, Doctrine, Rule, Discipline, Liturgy, Literature and Existing ConditionMalachia Ormanian, translated by G. Marcar Gregory
Zoroastrianism Becomes The Achaemenid State's De Facto Religion, Spread Events

This source names Armenia directly: "n, 405 to 358 BCE, when it reached from Armenia through Asia Minor and into the Levant."

Source Achaemenid Empire (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Contains

Ani, Cities
Dvin, Cities

The site lies in Ararat province in modern Armenia, beside the villages of Hnaberd and Verin Artashat.

Source The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern TimesRichard G. Hovannisian (ed.)
Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin), Cities
Source The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern TimesRichard G. Hovannisian (ed.)

Originated Here

Gregory the Illuminator, Figures
Source Gregory the Illuminator (Wikipedia)
Tiridates III of Armenia, Figures
Source Tiridates III of Armenia (Wikipedia)

Spread Events Here

Armenia, The First State To Adopt Christianity, Spread Events

Kingdom of Armenia, church established at Vagharshapat.

Source The Church of Armenia: Her History, Doctrine, Rule, Discipline, Liturgy, Literature and Existing ConditionMalachia Ormanian, translated by G. Marcar Gregory
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyGovernment, government type: ArmeniaView the Source
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
4. Armenia's State-Church Relations: Not Much Room for Optimism (ICLRS Talk About)
International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Brigham Young UniversityView the Source
5. Armenia 2015 Constitution (Constitute Project)
Republic of Armenia, Constitute ProjectView the Source
6. The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press
  • demonym / adjectival form
  • Entity description, state-funding
    The constitution recognises the exclusive historical mission of the Apostolic Church while guaranteeing freedom of religion.
View the Source
United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions
United Nations Statistics DivisionAncient and Historical Regions: Western Asia, Geographic regions table, Western Asia
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Western Asia, Geographic regions table, Western Asia
Western Asia 145 Armenia 051 ARM LLDC Azerbaijan 031 AZE LLDC Bahrain 048 BHR Cyprus 196 CYP Georgia 268 GEO Iraq 368 IRQ Israel 376 ISR Jordan 400 JOR Kuwait 414 KWT Lebanon 422 LBN Oman 512 OMN Qatar 634 QAT Saudi Arabia 682 SAU State of Palestine 275 PSE Syrian Arab Republic 760 SYR Türkiye 792 TUR United Arab Emirates 784 ARE Yemen 887 YEM LDC
View the Source
GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Caucasus
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Caucasus, Search results, matching entry
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Caucasus, Search results, matching entry
Caucasus Region Caucasia,Caucasus,Caucasus Region,Gafgaz,Kavkasia,Kavkaz,Kavkazskiy Khrebet,Kavkazskiye Gory,Kovkas,... 42.0 45.0 AM,AZ,GE region
View the Source
Gregory the Illuminator (Wikipedia)
Originated Here: Gregory the Illuminator, Lead paragraph, originated-in
Quote, Originated Here: Gregory the Illuminator, Lead paragraph, originated-in
Gregory the Illuminator (c. 257, c. 331) was the founder and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
View the Source
Tiridates III of Armenia (Wikipedia)
Originated Here: Tiridates III of Armenia, Lead paragraph, originated-in
Quote, Originated Here: Tiridates III of Armenia, Lead paragraph, originated-in
Tiridates III (c. 250s, c. 330), also known as Tiridates the Great or Tiridates IV, was the Armenian Arsacid king from c. 298 to c. 330.
View the Source
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