The Government will no longer grant land to the Mother See free of charge as ownership

The Government is proposing amendments to the Land Code under which, from now on, community and state lands would be provided to the Mother See for the construction and maintenance of churches not under the right of free of charge ownership, but only under the right of free of charge use. The relevant draft is included in the agenda of the Government’s December 25 session, “Azatutyun” reports.

The justification to the draft law does not specify why this change is being made. During interdepartmental discussions, the Ministry of Justice also noted this, emphasizing that “it is not possible to fully assess the advisability of adopting the Draft based on the justification presented, since the relevant analyses of the current situation, the problems, the objective of regulation, and the expected results are absent.”

According to the author of the draft, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the regulation was based on an instruction issued by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a meeting held in Tavush in April 2023, which required discussing whether it is advisable to impose restrictions on transferring, under ownership, land plots occupied by pastures designated for general use. According to the Ministry of Justice, the mentioned draft does not address these regulations in any way. Following the Ministry of Justice’s observations, this part was removed from the draft’s justification.

The regulations introduced by the Government cannot apply to lands that have already been transferred to the Mother See up to this point. In essence, the Government will no longer provide land to the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church free of charge under the right of ownership; instead, it will conclude a free of charge use agreement, specifying the parties’ rights, obligations, and timeframes.