Yerevan, Armenia - Satenik Avetisyan’s eldest son has recently returned from confinement, where his brother has also been held for three weeks. The brothers were sentenced to two years of imprisonment for refusing military service as conscientious objectors.
Avetisyan, 55, her two sons (20 and 18 year-old), and daughter (24 year-old) are Jehovah’s witnesses, members of a registered religious organization, which has more than 10,000 followers in Armenia (their number reaches six million all over the world). Strange though it may seem, Avetisyan is not very much worried about her sons’ imprisonments.
Satenik Avetisyan’s eldest son has recently returned from confinement, where his brother has also been held for three weeks. The brothers were sentenced to two years of imprisonment for refusing military service as conscientious objectors.
Avetisyan, 55, her two sons (20 and 18 year-old), and daughter (24 year-old) are Jehovah’s witnesses, members of a registered religious organization, which has more than 10,000 followers in Armenia (their number reaches six million all over the world). Strange though it may seem, Avetisyan is not very much worried about her sons’ imprisonments.
“Jesus Christ said rejoice and exult if you are pursued for me. This is our part of pursuit,” Avetisyan explains her sons’ choice.
Currently, according to the information provided by Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization, 70 members of their organization are in prison, because they refused military service. Even Armenia has a Law on Alternative Military Service, Jehovah’s Witnesses organization insists that the law is not civil, as far as those who refuse military service are, nevertheless, under military control during their alternative military service.
Avetisyan says that in the Bible it is written that people should not be trained for war.
“They do not carry weapons in their hands; they do not swear an oath. My sons went to the military commissariat and said that their religious beliefs do not allow them to use weapons,” Avetisyan tells and adds that two years of imprisonment has not negatively influenced her 20-year-old son.
Avetisyan remembers that yet in 1994 Jehovah’s witnesses approached her and suggested free of charge study of the Bible. She recalls that during the hardest years of her life, when she was trying to take care of her three children all alone, without having a job, she met Jehovah’s Witnesses again.
“It was in 1997, two Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked at our door, and they suggested that we should study the Bible. I, as always, told them that I am a bibliographer, and I can study it on my own,” she tells.
Jehovah’s Witnesses hearing the word bibliographer thought that Avetisyan was a Bible specialist, and asked for her help.
“I invited them inside, and in a while, I felt it was, in fact, I who needed help,” Avetisyan recalls.
And so, Avetisyan started studying the Bible with the help of one of the Jehovah’s witnesses, and next year, in summer of 1998, she was baptized into the religion.
Currently, as many Jehovah’s witness, Avetisyan spends most of her time approaching people in the streets and offering them free study of the Bible. Currently she is unemployed.
The Armenian Apostolic Church qualifies Jehovah’s Witnesses activities as “soul hunting” and calls for struggle against them. Early in 2009 the Armenian National Assembly started hearings of the proposed amendments to the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations. The Law that had raised discontent among many religious organizations in Armenia, passed by first reading, however the second reading scheduled for October was postponed for 90 days.
The law defines proselytism (soul hunting) as follows: “The kind of preaching activities imposed upon people having or not having religious or denominational standpoints, during which
material incentive is offered, or physical, moral or psychological pressure is applied, mistrust or hatred towards other religious organizations, their denominations and activities is inculcated, offensive language is used towards other people or religions; a person is pursued in his/her apartment, work place, recreation areas, etc., as well as by means of telephone conversations without his/her wish or consent is proselytism.”
The authors of the law suggest criminalizing “soul hunting” making it punishable by up to two years' imprisonment.
Avetisyan is sure that her activities cannot be defined as soul hunting.
“The Bible encourages passing the message of God to people. We must pass the good news (which, according to Jehovah’s witnesses, is the invisible presence of Jesus Christ, and his soon-to-come kingdom of heaven). We do not put pressure on anybody; we politely approach people and offer them free study of the Bible. This is the only reason why we approach people,” she explains.
Avetisyan says that after knowing Jehovah, she started to love Jehovah more than her children and herself. She has many poems dedicated to Jehovah. Avetisyan refused being photographed for the article saying that it would mean vainglory on her part.