A pro-government lawmaker hit out at the Armenian Apostolic Church on Thursday after its supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II, lamented “deepening intolerance” in Armenia and defended his earlier calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.
Garegin implied earlier in the day that the “fatherly appeal” made by him in the wake of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh is still valid.
“Sadly, we can see that the situation in our country remains perilous and worrying,” he told several media outlets in a rare interview. “Also, wrong and unacceptable statements are made … with regard to the status of Artsakh (Karabakh). Also worrying is the disunity, discord and spirit of intolerance deepening among our people, and in this sense we have a lot of work to do.”
Garegin appeared to allude to Pashinyan’s latest comments on the Karabakh conflict condemned by the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s leaders as pro-Azerbaijani.
Maria Karapetian, a parliament deputy representing Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party, responded by accusing the Armenian Church of meddling in politics and refusing to accept the supremacy of the state authorities.
“Maybe it would be a better solution not to talk about any political topic at all and to talk only about spiritual topics,” she said on the parliament floor.
Karapetian also denounced Garegin’s homily read out during the Easter mass at Yerevan’s Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral on April 9.
In that message, Garegin expressed concern at what he described as the erosion of “national-spiritual security of our people” and threats to “centuries-old sanctified traditions and our value system.”
“Indeed, when justice and truth cease to be the core of our undertakings and activities in state and public life, we will continue to face manifestations of pilatism,” he told hundreds of worshippers in what looked like a thinly veiled attack on the government.
The ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians belong, enjoyed strong government support until the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinyan to power. His frosty relationship with Garegin has increasingly deteriorated since then.
Garegin and other senior clergymen joined the Armenian opposition in calling for Pashinyan’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war. The prime minister openly attacked them when he campaigned for the June 2021 parliamentary elections.
Pashinyan and members of his government have since boycotted Christmas and Easter liturgies led by Garegin. They have also effectively excluded the Catholicos from official ceremonies to mark major national holidays and remembrance days.
