Religions and languages in Armenia

The main religion in Armenia is Christianity and it is practiced through the Armenian Apostolic Church. Please note that this religion is approved at the legislative level and is national for the Armenian people. The founders of this Armenian religion were the holy apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. They carried out their educational activities within the territory of Armenia and turned majority of the residents into believers. It is worth noting that according to this religion, the Apostle Thaddeus is considered a true disciple of Christ. Thus in the very first years of our era, the entire territory of modern Armenia was already under the guidance of the Armenian Apostolic Church. After the first century of our era, the faith spread far beyond the borders of the Republic to neighboring Georgia (Cappadocia) and other countries.

During the reign of the all-glorious Armenian king Tiridates III, one of the monks achieved the official status to the Armenian religion after all. Thus, Armenia became the first country in the world that formally recognized Christianity at the official state level, even before Byzantium. The main holy book of Armenians (the Bible), was rewritten in Armenian only 400 years after the birth of religion. To date, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church is the Supreme Patriarch (Catholics of the people). He lives in Etchmiadzin, and according to the legislation and church canons, all power for the administration of the Armenian Apostolic Church is in his hands. His irrefutable duty is to preserve all Armenian Christian rites and traditions for the next generations. Despite the migration of the local population who are spread throughout the world, the Armenian Church is still united in all its principles, ideas and attitudes. Pay attention to the fact that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Patriarchate of Constantinople were formed on the basis of the Armenian Apostolic religion.

In addition to the parishioners of the state religion, a rather large number of adherents of other diverse church denominations live in Armenia. The Constitution of the country guarantees all citizens freedom of religion and protection of personal religious interests. It is worth nothing that Islam was widespread in the Republic earlier. However, due to a number of conflicts particularly those that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh, most Muslims were forced to flee the country. Today, the largest concentration of Muslims is observed in Yerevan. Adherents of this faith consider themselves to be Sunni Shafi’ite. Also in the capital of Armenia is a three thousand-strong community of Jews. There are also adherents of the Catholic Armenian Church, Pentecostals and Baptists in the Republic. Believers of Orthodox Christianity are about five thousand in number. Furthermore, there are many different religious groups operating in the country. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

To date, the population of Armenia is no more than three and a half million people according to official data. However, the number of Armenian national communities around the world has long exceeded the figure of ten million. This is due to the difficult periods of the people’s genocide when the only way out for many locals was to flee their country. But despite this, the Armenian language was zealously protected and distributed. More than 96% of the population of Armenia is ethnic Armenians and they all speak Armenian which is considered one of the branches of the Indo-European languages. Nevertheless, during the years of nation-building the present Armenian language has changed significantly. Now it is used in the original form only during liturgies and worships. The Armenian alphabet can be said to be more than original. It was created by the worshiper Mesrop Mashtots at the beginning of the fourth century of our era.

Many scientists consider the Armenian language to be one of the unique ones because it dates back to the origin of our era, and in the face of Latin or Greek, the Armenian language did not become extinct. Although the vocabulary has changed, and this happens in most of the world’s languages, all existing sounds have remained untouched. Armenians themselves highly revere their ancient language so much so that even on the 1600th anniversary of its alphabet, a unique stone monument was erected for each Armenian letter on the slopes of Mount Aragats. You will not find such a thing anywhere else in the world. Several decades ago, the Azerbaijani language was widely spread in Armenia. However, almost all Azerbaijanis were forced to flee from Armenia after the nationalist confrontations. It is also worth noting that a number of linguistic minorities such as Russian, Greek and Assyrian were listed in the country.