“The Prime Minister is not targeting the Church, but individual clergy”—this is the claim I’ve heard in recent days from government officials, propagandists, and supporters. If the supporters are perhaps simply mistaken, the propagandists and officials surely know these are just excuses for a very real anti-Church campaign.
The head of Armenia’s executive branch has no authority to decide who should be the Catholicos of All Armenians. (When Pashinyan says “the Republic of Armenia should have a decisive vote,” he clearly means himself.) The Prime Minister of Armenia is not a Byzantine emperor entitled to a “decisive vote” on such matters. He should not determine which clergy continue their service and which are removed. He cannot dictate clergy conduct or pass “judgment” on such issues. And on what basis would these decisions be made—court verdicts? Will the National Security Service be planting “bugs” – surveillance devices — in the bedrooms of clergy?
Everything Pashinyan has said leads me to conclude that the real target is not individual clergy, but the Church itself—more specifically, the sovereignty of the Church, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. The broader target is the principle of the separation of Church and state—one of the fundamental pillars of European political culture. Incidentally, I’m surprised that the NGOs in Armenia, which supposedly receive grants to promote European values, remain silent on this issue.
It’s entirely possible that within the “Pashinyan community,” there is complete consensus on this topic. But if Pashinyan were to declare tomorrow that, in order to secure Armenia’s full sovereignty and prevent war, the country should become part of Turkey or Azerbaijan, members of that community would likely respond again with chants of “Long live our powerful Prime Minister.” That community may indeed include hundreds of thousands of Armenians.
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Allow me to say: I am not one of them.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
