Biography of Haik Hovsepian-Mehr

In 1966, upon completion of his mandatory military service, Haik married Takoosh Ginagosian. Around 1967 Brother Haik, newly married and pastor in Majidieh, informed the church that God had called him to Gorgan whose population was almost entirely Muslim with only a few Armenian families. The church supported his call and began to pray that a place for worship could be found in Gorgan. Despite being run out of several homes when it was discovered that Christ was being preached, a place was miraculously provided. An old house belonging to an Assyrian family (also Orthodox Christians) had been converted into a place of worship that people in Gorgan already considered a church. Money was raised for the purchase and renovation began. During that time, God blessed Haik and Takoosh with a son, and Haik continued his self-study of the Bible, music, and English.

Tragedy struck one evening in 1969. Haik, his wife Takoosh, and their six-month old child were traveling from Tehran to Gorgan with an American missionary family when the car rear-ended a tractor-trailer without reflective lights. The adult passengers survived, but the four children aboard were killed. Both Haik and Takoosh suffered broken legs and were not expected to walk again. Despite physical and emotional pain, they recovered use of their legs and within a few months they returned to Gorgan where they faithfully served for fourteen years amid much hardship and persecution.

Difficulties during Haik’s pastorate in Gorgan included repeated threats, particularly by one Islamic extremist group known as Tablighat-e Islami who “broke up church meetings, threw rocks through church windows and harassed Muslim converts.” Another time a group of radical Muslims intended to burn down the church building, but the government stepped in.

In 1979 Iran became a theocracy known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. Foreign missionaries were expelled, but during the early years of the Revolution, life within the Persian-speaking churches went on pretty much as usual. Religious freedoms granted to ethnic Christians such as Armenians and Assyrians continued. However, grave problems occurred when Christians proselytized Muslims. It was during this season of transition in 1981 when Haik was elected General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God churches in Iran and moved his family to Tehran. There were seven Persian-speaking churches under his jurisdiction at that time. Five years later in 1986 the Protestant churches of Iran united and Haik became president of the Council of Protestant Churches. It was in this leadership position that Bishop Haik liaised with the Islamic government and his days became numbered.

Persecution in Iran following the Islamic Revolution, like the church of the first and second century, was politically, not religiously based. The government could no longer control Christian converts. They were not team players. Haik refused to sign an Iranian decree restricting church worship and membership. Furthermore, Haik would not sign a statement saying that he enjoyed full constitutional rights as a Christian in Iran.

Bishop Haik Hovsepian-Mehr and the denomination he represented, the Assemblies of God, were ordered to comply with the following directives: (1) Church services could not be held in Farsi, the official language of Iran; (2) Church members must be issued membership cards and produce them upon attendance; (3) Membership lists, complete with addresses, must be handed over to governmental authorities; (4) Meetings must be confined to Sunday, not Friday the officially recognized day of worship; (5) Only members could attend Sunday meetings; and (6) New members could only be added to the membership and admitted to meetings once the Ministry of Information and Islamic Guidance had been notified. Haik deliberately disobeyed and defiantly declared, "Never would he or his ministers bow down and comply with such inhumane and unjust demands" and that "our churches are open to all who want to come in.”

Like the church of the first few centuries for which persecution was at first localized then became empire-wide, persecution within Iran during the late 1970s and early 1980s was aimed specifically at the Anglican church, whose converts came primarily from Muslim backgrounds. In 1979 Reverend Arastoo Sayyah, an Anglican priest in Shiraz, had his throat cut. In 1980 Bahram Deghani-Tafti, son of an Anglican Bishop in Esfahan, was shot, following earlier attempts on his father’s life. These brutal deaths put into motion a string of seven martyrdoms.

Persecution of Christians within Iran during the1990s focused on a bigger Protestant circle—the Assemblies of God. In December of 1990 Reverend Hossein Soodman, pastor in Mashad, was executed. Three more murders occurred in 1994: Bishop Haik, Muslim convert Mehdi Dibaj and Reverend Tateos Michaelian. Michaelian was highly regarded as a scholar of philosophy and Persian literature who had translated more than 60 Christian books into Persian. He had taken over Haik’s position as Chairman of the Protestant Council of Ministers and was senior pastor of St. John's Armenian Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Then in the fall of 1996, Mohammad Bagher Yusefi, pastor in Mazanderan province, was murdered.

Assemblies of God director for the Middle East Doug Clark stated verified the tremendous impact: “The deaths of so many evangelical pastors has been devastating for the tiny Iranian Christian community, which is estimated to number fewer than 15,000. The Iranian Assemblies of God has lost nearly 25 percent of its ministers.”

However, it was Bishop Haik’s insistence upon the release of Mehdi Dibaj, who had been imprisoned unjustly for over ten years on charges of apostasy, which set the stage in motion for the three martyrdoms of 1994. Many believe that “ the dominoes began falling when Haik Hovsepian-Mehr dared to start a global campaign to save a fellow Iranian pastor (Dibaj).” During late 1993 and the first few weeks of 1994, Haik drew international attention to religious persecution of Mehdi Dibaj. “During his imprisonment, Dibaj endured unending pressures to recant his faith including two years of solitary confinement in a tiny, unlit cell; numerous mock executions; beatings; and other indignities. Meanwhile, Dibaj’s wife, who was threatened with stoning, divorced him in 1988 and married a Muslim.”

A detailed report of violations of religious freedom within Iran was released, and Bishop Haik invited the United Nations Special Representative for Human Rights to come to Iran for a meeting with the Protestant ministers and government officials to investigate fully the concerns raised in the report regarding persecution of the church and of Muslim converts to Christianity. Government and human rights groups became involved. Even self-admitted non-Christian British editorialist Bernard Levin noted that “Bishop Haik walked always in the shadow of violent death, because of his religion, but probably that fact, together with his succour of Dibaj, was enough; at least we can safely say that he was tortured and murdered because he was a Christian and for the support he was always ready to give to his brother and sister Christians.”

Haik’s committed campaign for Dibaj paid off. On January 16, 1994, Dibaj was released. Three days later Haik vanished from the streets of Tehran. Haik’s death was reported to his family on January 30, 1994. “When his family came to identify the body, they saw that he had been stabbed 10 times. No one claimed responsibility, but Middle East human rights groups are convinced that the Iranian government did away with the troublesome pastor.”

A memorial service for Haik was held in both Tehran and London. The New York Times reported that: “About 100 Armenian Iranians took part in the discreet funeral for Bishop Hovsepian-Mehr [in Tehran], all under the watch of the police and Information Ministry agents. The Bishop’s daughter, Rebecca Hovsepian-Mehr, 22, led mourners to the burial at the Armenian cemetery, 30 miles east of Tehran. ‘My father was a priest and he was murdered,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t feel the freedom to speak at this time.’”

According to a family friend: “The [Tehran] burial service was attended by hundreds of church members—Armenian, Assyrian, Jewish and many Iranians (Moslem [sic] background Christians). It was not 100 Armenian Iranians as quoted (by The Times). This was followed by a grand memorial service attended by all protestant church leaders in the Assyrian Evangelical church attended by close to 2,000 believers from all backgrounds. Mehdi Dibaj was present in both ceremonies.”

Nearly 1,000 people from Europe, North America and Asia attended a memorial service for Haik held in London. Several significant church leaders paid homage, including Rev. Clive Calver, Brother Andrew (author of God’s Smuggler) and George Verwer (Operation Mobilization).

Within six months of Haik’s death, both Dibaj and Rev. Tateos Michaelian went missing and later were discovered to have been murdered. Middle East Concern (MEC), a human rights organization, reported that:

[S]ources have revealed that Tateos's body had in fact been dismembered and that a copy of a ‘hit list’ of prominent Christians was found with his body…MEC's sources, who have access to high-level government contacts, categorically state that they believe that all 3 murders of the Christian leaders were carried out by a death-squad operating within the Iranian security structures and sanctioned by orders from the highest political levels.

Takoosh and her four children (Rebekkah, Joseph, Gilbert, and Andre) eventually immigrated to California, to be surrounded by a large diaspora of Armenians and Persians, including family members and friends from Tehran. Takoosh is frequently asked to speak at conferences, and the now grown children are in ministries of their own. Two of Haik’s brothers are also active in ministry outside Iran.

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