350,000 Armenian citizens involved in Sects

10/11/2010

A total of 64 sects are officially registered in Armenia. Over 100 non-official religious organizations are functioning as well, Alexander Amaryan, head of Center for Rehabilitation and Assistance to Victims of Destructive Cults, said during today’s Yerevan-Moscow-Georgia-Ukraine space bridge.

At the moment sects involve 350,000 people, 100,000 out of them being members of destructive sects, he said, adding that it is quite large number for a 3 million populated country. Amaryan wonders how Armenia could preserve Christianity being under Islamic influence for 6 centuries but lost belief in Armenian Apostolic church within recent 20 years of its independence. According to him, current state with religion is conditioned by manipulations of sects coming from West.

Alexander Dvorkin, director of the Russian St. Irenaeus of Lyon Center of Religious Studies, noted that there is no official data on sects in Russia, but about 600-800,000 people are involved. The number of official sects in Russia reaches 80, while non-official ones – about 1000.

Unlike sects functioning in Armenia, that are of western origin, organization functioning in the territory of Russia were also formed in post-Soviet area, for instance Krishnaists moved to Russia from Armenia.

Kakhaber Kurtanidze, clergyman of Georgian Orthodox Church, says that only three sects are functioning in Georgia. The most dangerous is “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, as members of religious organization oppose treatment of children.

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