No. 20: Religion in the South Caucasus
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No. 20 11 October 2010 Abkhazia South Ossetia caucasus Adjara analytical digest Nagorno- Karabakh resourcesecurityinstitute.org www.laender-analysen.de www.res.ethz.ch www.boell.ge RELIGION IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS ■■Religiosity in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan 2 By Robia Charles, Tbilisi ■■GRAPHS Religiosity in the South Caucasus in Opinion Polls 5 ■■The Role of the Armenian Church During Military Conflicts 7 By Harutyun Harutyunyan, Yerevan ■■Canonization, Obedience, and Defiance: Strategies for Survival of the Orthodox Communities in Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia 10 By Kimitaka Matsuzato, Hokkaido ■■Ethnic Georgian Muslims: A Comparison of Highland and Lowland Villages 13 By Ruslan Baramidze, Tbilisi ■■CHRONICLE From 4 July to 3 October 2010 16 Resource Research Centre Center German Association for HEINRICH BÖLL STIFTUNG Security for East European Studies for Security Studies East European Studies SOUTH CAUCASUS Institute University of Bremen ETH Zurich CAUCASUS ANALYTICAL DIGEST No. 20, 11 October 2010 2 Religiosity in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan By Robia Charles, Tbilisi Abstract This article examines the nature of religiosity in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Annual nationwide sur- vey data results from the Caucasus Barometer (CB) in 2008 and 2007 show that religious practice as mea- sured by service attendance, fasting and prayer are low throughout the region, similar to levels found in Western Europe. However, religious affiliation, the importance of religion in one’s daily life and trust in religious institutions is high in all three countries. This provides support for understanding religiosity as a multidimensional concept. Little Practice, But Strong Affiliation until 1985. The results of perestroika in the religious This article examines religiosity among populations in sphere under Gorbachev were a body of state-religion Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. It also provides sup- relations that was almost a total reversal from previous port for understanding religiosity as a multidimensional Soviet policies. It thus became possible for religious concept. activities to increase and become more visible than they Many countries of the post-communist region, had been in the past. However, while Soviet policies had including the three countries of the South Caucasus, failed to extinguish religious belief and religious institu- have populations with low levels of religiosity as mea- tions, they still were successful at reducing visible and sured by religious practices such as attendance at reli- public religious life. Thus, practices such as religious gious services, fasting and prayer. Nevertheless, many attendance and fasting became obsolete over time even of these countries have high levels of subjective forms though many people continued to identify themselves of religiosity, including religious affiliation, trust in as religious believers in other more intrinsic ways. While religious institutions and the importance of religion in these religious practices have become more common in one’s daily life. Therefore, different indicators of religi- Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, especially since 1991, osity measure different aspects of the same concept. The their rates are still lower than rates of religious affilia- seemingly contradictory nature of religiosity in Armenia, tion, trust in religious institutions and the importance Georgia and Azerbaijan is a common feature throughout of religion in one’s daily life. the post-communist region and it also sets the region The first section of this article provides an over- apart from the rest of the world. view of the religious composition of Armenia, Georgia The combination of low levels of religious practice and Azerbaijan. The second section presents survey data with high levels of subjective forms of religiosity is a on religiosity as defined by religious practice (e.g., reli- Soviet legacy and is partially due to the nature of Soviet gious attendance, fasting and prayer) in all three coun- state policies toward religion over time. There is not tries. The third section discusses two subjective forms room here to discuss the current character of states in of religiosity: the importance of religion in one’s daily the South Caucasus, which each have their own variety life and trust in religious institutions. of state secularism and relationship with religion (I will This article primarily employs data from the 2008 examine this issue in a forthcoming article). However, a Caucasus Barometer (CB)—a nationwide survey that is brief discussion of Soviet state policies toward religion is annually conducted in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Geor- necessary to understand how the past affects the present. gia by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Data on rates of prayer and the importance of religion worked to eradicate religion; however, constantly chang- in daily life are taken from the 2007 CB. This is not ing social, political and economic considerations influ- problematic because the results of questions on religion enced the formation and execution of religious policy. do not change drastically from year to year because Thus, initially the Soviet state sought to extirpate reli- such questions measure slow-moving variables. The CB gious institutions and belief, especially from 1929 to uses multistage cluster sampling with preliminary strat- 1939. However, the state subsequently established a com- ification on nine geographically defined units in each promise with religion under Stalin as the Soviet Union country: capital, urban-Northeast, urban-Northwest, sought to use religion as a mobilization tool following urban-Southeast, urban-Southwest, rural-Northeast, its entry into World War II in 1941. A mix of religious rural-Northwest, rural-Southeast and rural-Southwest. freedoms, anti-religious activities and divide-and-rule Th ee samplingsampling frameframe inin 20072007 andand 20082008 waswas thethe cencen-- policies defined the period from Stalin’s death in 1953 sus in Azerbaijan and Georgia and electricity records CAUCASUS ANALYTICAL DIGEST No. 20, 11 October 2010 3 in Armenia. The number of primary sampling units country. Over 50% of people in each country attend reli- (PSUs) in each stratum was proportional to the popula- gious services only on special holidays or less often which tion of each stratum. Fifty households on average were attests to the symbolic nature of these religions among randomly sampled in each PSU for an interview. The the populations in Armenia, Georgian and Azerbaijan. rough number of individual interviews per country was The CB also asks about rates of fasting for religious 2,082 in 2008 and 2,458 in 2007 in Armenia; 1,611 in purposes: “How often do you fast when it is required 2008 and 3,306 in 2007 in Georgia; and 2,014 in 2008 by your religious traditions?” Responses vary from 1 and 2,146 in 2007 in Azerbaijan. (always fast) to 5 (never fast). To provide a more concise and intuitive understanding of fasting for religious pur- Religious Composition poses, this scale has been reversed so that higher num- There are many religions found in the South Caucasus bers correspond to more frequent fasting and lower num- region, yet there is also a general congruency between bers correspond to little or no fasting. As with religious state boundaries and the religious characteristics of attendance, scores have been collapsed into fewer cate- their populations. To understand religious affiliations in gories: 1 (rarely or never fast), 2 (sometimes fast) and 3 Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan the CB asks, “Which (often or always fast). religion or denomination, if any, do you consider your- Figure 2 shows that the majority of respondents in self belong to?” Eighty-five percent of people consider Armenia (91%) and Georgia (73%) rarely or never fast. themselves to belong to the Orthodox Church in Geor- Although 52% of people in Azerbaijan rarely or never gia (10% of the population is Muslim), 95% to the Arme- fast, this country has the largest percentage of people nian Apostolic Church in Armenia, and 99% to Islam who often or always fast (24%) among these three coun- in Azerbaijan (approximately 65% of adherents are Shi’a tries (9% in Georgia and 3% in Armenia often or always and 35% are Sunni). fast). Thus, the majority of people in each country see Finally, the CB from 2007 asks about rates of prayer: themselves as belonging to a particular religion or “Apart from religious services, how often does respondent denomination despite varying levels of religious prac- pray?” Responses range from 1 (every day) to 7 (never). tice and other forms of religiosity. This is a common fea- As with religious attendance, the scale has been reversed ture found in many parts of the world. The following and collapsed to provide a more intuitive understand- section discusses far lower percentages of people who ing of prayer: 1 (never), 2 (only on special holidays or practice different aspects of the religions to which they less often), 3 (at least once a month) and 4 (once a week see themselves belonging. Certainly, there are differences or more). Figure 3 demonstrates that in Armenia and in the nature of religious attendance, fasting and prayer Georgia almost as many people pray once a week or more between each of these religions. However, the purpose (42% in Armenia and 49% in Georgia) as they do less of this article is not to explain differences in the rates of often, only on special holidays or never combined