YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. According to Armenia's Constitution, religious institutions are separate from the state, and therefore, the state does not interefere in the issues of citizens' belief. The state's task is to give a legal status to this or that religious organization and to follow that they act within the law. As Hranush Kharatian, an ethnographer, the Head of the RA government's Department on Issues of Religion and National Minorities, said at the January 28 meeting on the subject "Religious Intolerance and Discrimination", "the state does not directly actively deal with religion and religious organizations." "A number of laws were adopted earlier, which regulate that sphere and lack elements containing discrimination. Therefore, I can surely say that there is no religious intolerance as such in Armenia," H. Kharatian is convinced. Nevertheless, Mrs Kharatian stated that though there is no religious discrimination and intolerance in Armenia, a great part of country's population has an internal contradiction to some religious organizations, which is moderate, and no extraordinary incident has been registered in that respect so far. Mrs Kharatian also said that the state has returned the buildings and constructions belonging to some religious organizations, which were taken away from them in the Soviet years. They are the churches and constructions belonging to Assyrian, Greek, and Russian religious communities. Hranush Kharatian touched upon the report published by the Amnesty International organization lately, which mentioned that there is religious intolerance and discrimination in Armenia. Mrs Kharatian said that they have already expressed their position in connection with that report at the respective international instances. According to her, that is a one-sided work not corresponding to reality, as it has been prepared on the basis of the facts introduced by only one, Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization, which do not correspond to reality. When preparing the report that organization has not applied to any state structure to use the data they have.

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