Armenian PM’s chief of staff: Clerics turned church into “ISIS branch”

The Chief of Staff to the Armenian Prime Minister, Arayik Harutyunyan, has criticised statements made during a rally held outside the Armenian Consulate General in Glendale, California, on July 13.

The rally was organised by the “National Front” movement, Caliber.Az reports.

Harutyunyan, sharing a video of the speech delivered by a clergyman at the event, wrote:

“He says that Pashinyan should be beheaded. They have turned the Armenian Apostolic Church into a branch of the Islamic State organisation — they’re talking about beheading, and not just anyone, but the democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

Well then, friends, do you still think Vazgen Galstanyan is just a 'Snow Maiden' compared to this priest?”

The “National Front” movement, an opposition group critical of Pashinyan’s policies, organised the July 13 rally in Glendale, a hub of the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. The rally protested Pashinyan’s handling of Armenia’s 2020 and 2023 defeats to Azerbaijan, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), and his peace negotiations with Azerbaijan, which critics view as concessions. A clergyman, whose identity remains unspecified in reports, delivered a speech advocating for Pashinyan’s beheading, prompting outrage from Harutyunyan.

By Khagan Isayev