The Armenian authorities exceed their powers by attacking and threatening the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), which is legally separated from the state - the Armenian people treat it "with great respect" and did not give Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan the authority to reform it at his discretion, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, told RIA Novosti..
On Wednesday, speaking in parliament, Pashinyan threatened to take away churches owned by the state and used by the church for free from the Armenian Apostolic Church, since "there is no spiritual life there." According to the politician, the place where "there is a spiritual life" is the Hovhannavank monastery, whose rector was Priest Aram Asatryan (previously Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II deprived Asatryan of his spiritual dignity for numerous violations and discrediting the church). According to media reports, Pashinyan also stated in parliament that the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Garegin II, is no longer a representative of the clergy, but his brother, the head of the Russian and Novo-Nakhichevan diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Ezras, is, according to Pashinyan, a "KGB agent."
"It seems that the current leader of the Armenian government has decided to engage in an unequal struggle against national spiritual foundations and, for this purpose, resorts to harassment and insults of the hierarchs of the church and its clergy in general, arrests of clergy, threats of seizure of church buildings. Perhaps this is happening under the influence of external forces, since such ideas clearly do not reflect the feelings of the Armenian people, who treat their church with great respect and did not give Pashinyan the authority to reform it on his own," said the adviser to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
He added that according to Armenian law, the church is separated from the state and government representatives have no right to interfere in its affairs. "A politician of a secular state has no right to interfere in the order of church life, determined by the canonical institutions of the church itself. The Constitution of Armenia guarantees the freedom of activity of religious organizations and emphasizes that they are endowed with autonomy and are separate from the state. Thus, the Prime Minister violates his constitutional powers with such statements, allowing himself offensive statements and threats against the church leadership," the Patriarch's adviser emphasized.
He also recalled that according to the same Armenian Constitution, the state undertook to recognize "the exclusive mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as the national church in the spiritual life of the Armenian people, in the development of their national culture and the preservation of their national identity." "The experience of history convincingly shows that the struggle against the faith of people and with the church inevitably ends in defeat, and its detractors cover themselves with shame," concluded the agency interlocutor.
Relations between the Armenian authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church sharply worsened after Pashinyan posted offensive posts against the Armenian Apostolic Church on Facebook* (banned in Russia as extremist) in late May, including using profanity. Later, he proposed to change the procedure for electing the Catholicos of All Armenians and to assign a decisive role to the state in this process.
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, who stood up for the church, was arrested, which caused outrage among numerous representatives of the diaspora around the world, who told RIA Novosti that political persecution of the church and its supporters was unacceptable. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who heads the "Holy Struggle" movement, was also arrested. He was the leader of the demonstrators who demanded the resignation of the prime minister in 2024. At the end of June, the head of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Mikael Ajapakhyan, was arrested in Yerevan. A case was opened against him and he was accused of calling for the seizure of power. The hierarch himself called these accusations fabricated. Before Ajapakhyan's arrest, Armenian National Security Service officers arrived at the residence of the Catholicos of All Armenians in Etchmiadzin to detain the archbishop, but were rebuffed by believers and priests.