YEREVAN. - Reasons people go for suicide vary but the influence of various religious organizations and sects is substantial among them, Father Babken Hayrapetyan of Armenian Apostolic Church said at a press conference on Wednesday.

According to the priest, many people, caught under the influence of various sects preaching about Armageddon or some horror stories, commit suicide out of despair.

"Sometimes people affiliated into a particular religious organization realize they lost not only friends and family but also all the means of supporting themselves. As a result they commit suicide,” he added.

The priest believes that suicide is "a fact of separation from God":

"A man commits suicide when he kills the God in himself, interrupting the life given from above. Atheists who live their lives running after material goods and losing them, losing the meaning of life, are also doomed to suicide," he said.