Armenian archbishop rebukes Pashinyan’s “scandalous” accusations against church

The Armenian Apostolic Church has responded to recent controversial remarks by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, accusing him of using inappropriate language and making baseless allegations against the clergy.

Speaking to reporters, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, criticised Pashinyan’s recent scandalous comments in which the prime minister appeared to accuse an unnamed clergyman of illicit sexual conduct, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

“The Church cannot use the same language as those who initiated attacks against it,” Khachatryan said.

The Archbishop said he does not know which clergyman Pashinyan was referring to: “I don't know, ask him yourself," Khachatryan said.

Khachatryan said the language used by Pashinyan is inappropriate for a national leader, and his accusations amount to nothing more than slander.

To recall, during a cabinet meeting on May 29, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his wife Anna Hakobyan, and other members of the ruling Civil Contract party accused clergymen of breaking their vow of celibacy, as well as paedophilia. Pashinyan claimed that Armenian churches had been turned into “storerooms”, where people could see “extra tiles, a sack of cement”, and even “rusty scraps of rebar”, though he did not specify where he had personally seen such conditions.

A day after Pashinyan’s remarks, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Taron Chakhoyan, posted photos on Facebook to support the Prime Minister’s claims. The images were taken at the 7th-century Saint Gayane Church, located near the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in Vagharshapat, and they showed items such as plastic bottles, brooms, buckets, sacks, and other non-religious objects.

After facing criticism from church members, the opposition, and other critics over his remarks, Pashinyan responded with a series of social media posts starting on May 30 morning, in which he accused members of the clergy of various forms of misconduct.

By Khagan Isayev