YEREVAN. – Religious groups must have opportunity to carry out propaganda in Armenia, U.S. Ambassador told reporters after a conference on religious freedom.

John Heffern attended the conference “Freedom of religion in today’s world: challenges and guarantees” held within the framework of Armenia’s chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

It is important that Armenia is paying attention to the issue of religious freedom, he said. U.S. Ambassador recalled that Armenia had signed a number of international conventions, taking over commitments on their implementation.

Commenting on State Department’s recent report on Religious Freedom, Ambassador Heffern noted that the U.S. is accepting special status of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the country, but reforms are necessary in several aspects.

As to the remark that Armenia is tolerant towards traditional religions, and has bias toward sects, while U.S. is interested in the groups because they are financing them, Heffern said the report’s policy religion is based on international standards that had been adopted by Armenia.

“In such reports, we try to be balanced, to praise those areas that provide international standards and indicate the areas where reform is needed,” he added.