Armenia’s liberal authorities has by no means been an ally of the deeply conservative Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), however when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made extraordinary allegations towards an unnamed senior clergyman, it blew open a deep divide.
“Your Grace, go idiot round together with your uncle’s spouse. What would you like from me?” mentioned Pashinyan.
He additionally accused the supreme religious chief – Catholicos Karekin II – of breaking his vow of celibacy and fathering a toddler, calling on him to resign. The BBC has approached the Church for remark however has not had a response.
Till now the Church and authorities had discovered a solution to co-exist, however the row threatens to separate an already polarised Armenian society nonetheless additional – and have an effect on the result of subsequent yr’s election.
It may additionally hurt peace talks which have the potential to re-shape your complete area of the South Caucasus, after Armenia’s bitter defeat in a conflict towards Azerbaijan.
Armenia is believed to be the primary nation to make Christianity the state faith, after its king was baptised in 301AD. Though there’s a separation of Church and state by legislation, the Armenian structure recognises the AAC “as a nationwide Church”.
The Church has not addressed the allegations however mentioned the prime minister had sought “to silence its voice”. It has reiterated that the federal government has no say within the issues of Church governance.
If true, Pashinyan’s allegation would make the Catholicos unfit for workplace. Below the Church’s by-laws, solely monks who took a vow of celibacy might be elected a Catholicos.
On these grounds Pashinyan now calls for Karekin’s resignation, regardless of having no jurisdiction over the Church. He has introduced no proof however threatened to launch it.
Pashinyan has additionally attacked different senior clergymen, together with accusing one archbishop of getting an affair, with the extraordinary allegation of “playing around” together with his uncle’s spouse.
The opposition events and two of Armenia’s former presidents, Levon Ter-Petrossian and Serzh Sargsyan, have rallied behind the Church and condemned Pashinyan’s transfer towards it.
The federal government’s relationship with the Church deteriorated after the defeat within the 2020 conflict towards neighbouring Azerbaijan, when Karekin II joined calls from numerous political factions for the prime minister to step down.
Pashinyan stayed in energy, and the Church turned a outstanding anti-government voice.
Just lately, Karekin II demanded the precise of return for the Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh, a area of Azerbaijan that it recaptured in 2023.
The prime minister’s allies are sad with such interventions, as they contradict the federal government’s place within the ongoing peace talks.
Pashinyan pushes for a swift peace treaty that may see each nations drop mutual claims. However Azerbaijani media seized on nationalist opposition calls for as proof that Armenia will not be prepared for peace.
The Armenian Church has benefited from turning into a hub for dissent. With private rivalries between the leaders of opposition events, it’s drawing in these disaffected with the authorities.
Political analysts in Armenia counsel this may be an actual cause for the federal government’s sudden assault on the Church chief.
The subsequent normal election has been scheduled for June 2026, and the anti-Church marketing campaign might be a pre-emptive strike towards the stronghold of conservative opposition.
The prime minister himself has linked his place to politics: “We returned the state to the folks. Now we should return the Church to the folks.”
When a robust benefactor spoke out in help of the Church this week, the federal government swiftly moved towards him.
Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan threatened to “intervene within the marketing campaign towards the Church in our personal manner” if opposition politicians did not defend it.
Hours later, his residence was raided and on Wednesday he was charged with “making public calls to overthrow the federal government”. He denies the cost.
The battle between Armenia’s political and religious chief is a extremely delicate matter far past its nationwide borders, because the Church has a whole lot of parishes within the diaspora, from Russia and Ukraine to Western Europe, the Center East and America.
Whereas rumours about Karekin’s alleged secret household have lengthy circulated in tabloids, for years extra severe accusations had been being made by diaspora parishes.
They alleged that Church leaders had been extorting month-to-month funds and micro-managing dioceses that used to take pleasure in operational autonomy.
In 2013, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem accused Karekin II of getting no religious values and solely tending to its materials wellbeing. The Church mentioned the allegations had been false.
Till just lately, Nikol Pashinyan has largely stayed above the fray. “It’s my perception that authorities has no place within the Church’s inner points,” he mentioned quickly after taking workplace in 2018. After years of respecting this pledge, the prime minister might need modified his thoughts.
Regardless of the consequence of this row, it’s prone to deepen polarisation in a society that has already been fractured, not simply by political infighting, however by wedge points over whether or not to be allied to Russia or the West and by tensions between the residents of Armenia and ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
