The deeply religious South Caucasus nation of 3 million appears to be becoming more and more divided as a result of a confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Armenia’s top Christian clerics.
The Armenian Apostolic Church’s main office has been “taken over by the anti-Christian, immoral, antinational, and antistate group and has to be liberated,” according to Pashinyan, who wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, adding: “I will lead this liberation.”
On June 27, bells rang out over St. Echmiadzin to signal the conflict’s escalating bells late last month.
The loud and alarming sound typically indicates a significant event, such as a foreign invasion.
However, the noise rang out on that scorching-hot June day to announce the arrest of a prominent cleric who, according to Pashinyan, was a member of a “criminal-oligarchic clergy” who was engaged in “terrorism” and plotted a “coup”
Karekin II, the Church’s head, has reportedly fought with Pashinyan in a months-long personal dispute, among the “coup organisers.”
However, according to observers, the conflict shouldn’t be seen as a conflict between secular authorities and the entire Church.
According to Richard Giragosian of the Regional Studies Center think tank in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, “it’s a personal conflict.”
However, some Armenians continued to use almost apocalyptic language to describe the ferocity of the situation.
Being a member of the Church was equivalent to being an Armenian, according to Narine Malikyan, a 37-year-old mother of two from Guymri, Armenia’s second-largest city, in an interview with Al Jazeera. The phrase “attacking the Church is like an Armenian attacking every Armenian” applies.
While Iranians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and Russians ruled their lands, the Church, whose doctrine differs from that of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox views, has for centuries helped to preserve Armenians’ identity.
The “Karabakh clan”
The Armenian-Azerbaijani war that put an end to a decades-old “frozen conflict” has the origins of the conflict between Pashinyan and Karekin.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-dominated mountainous Azeri enclave, disintegrated in a bloody conflict that had already caused a million people’s displacement.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s political elite attracted support from Moscow, established ties with the Church, and received support from Moscow.
Two presidents who ruled Armenia for 20 years were sacked as a result of the so-called “Karabakh clan,” but they were accused of corruption, cronyism, and money theft from Armenian diasporas in France, the United States, and Russia.
Former lawmaker and well-known publicist Pashinyan led massive protests that sparked the “Karabakh clan’s” demise in 2018. With more than 80% approval, he was elected prime minister.
Some protesters eluded Karekin’s resignation as he pleaded for him to step down due to his fondness for expensive vehicles and parties in the past.
An unmarried child
In a 44-day war that demonstrated the superiority of drone attacks and hi-tech stratagems, Armenia lost Nagorno-Karabakh two years later.
Tens of thousands of its residents emigrated to Armenia in 2023, when Azerbaijan reclaimed control of the entire Dubai-sized territory.
Even though observers have suggested that Pashinyan is to blame for the defeat, Karekin claimed that his predecessors were to blame for the errors.
Pashinyan responded.
He claimed that Karekin, 73, who was ordained in 1970, who studied theology in Austria, Germany, and Moscow, violated his oath to become the Church’s head in 1999, should resign from his position.
On June 9, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook, “If Karekin II tries to deny this fact, I’ll prove it in all necessary ways.”
Armenian media “discovered” that Karekin’s alleged daughter works in Yerevan, despite the fact that he did not provide specifics.
Karekin accused Pashinyan of dividing Armenians, but he refrained from disputing the claim.
The grey-bearded clergyman, who donned a ceremonial robe decorated with crosses and wore a ceremonial robe, declared on June 22 at a ceremony at St. Echmiadzin, “The anti-clerical campaign unleashed by the authorities is a serious threat to our national unity, domestic stability, and is a direct blow to our statehood.”
A priest called Pashinyan “Judas” and claimed he had been circumcised a day later.
Pashinyan apologized by offering to confront the priest and Karekin.
A detention that went wrong
Difficulty intelligence officers forcibly interrogated another Pashinyan critic, Archbishop Mikael Adjapakhyan, during a conference in one of St. Echmiadzin’s tawny, centuries-old buildings on June 27.
However, during the Soviet-era crackdown on religion, the tocsin summoned priests and parishioners to fight them off, while critics compared the incident to the 1938 murder of Armenia’s top cleric in St. Echmiadzin.
Archbishop Adjapakhyan confessed to reporters that he “was being persecuted illegally” and offered to do an interrogation a few hours later.
Along with 14 alleged “coup organisers,” including another archbishop, Bagrat Galstanyan, opposition figures, and “Karabakh clan” figures, he was detained for two months.
According to the Civic, the coup was supposed to take place on Armenia’s Independence Day on September 21. daily .
Samvel Karapetyan, a construction magnate who owns Armenia’s largest power company and made an estimated $3.6 billion fortune in Russia, was also detained.
Pashinyan was threatened by Karapetyan, saying that we would take part in the conflict with Karekin in our own unique way, if it did not end.
According to Giragosian, the arrests were “a move by the Armenian government to prevent any potential Russian interference in the upcoming [parliamentary] elections scheduled for June 2026.”
It’s difficult to get past “Pashinyan ,”
Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party is accused of supporting Turkiye and Azerbaijan.
However, Pashinyan has its reservations.
According to Emil Mustafayev, chief editor of Baku’s Minval Politika magazine, “Pashinyan is by far not a peace dove.” He is difficult to bargain with.
However, Pashinyan “began to takeheed of Baku’s position” after Nagorno-Karabakh’s defeat, Mustafayev said. He’s the least problematic partner one can have a conversation with, regardless of how challenging it may be, according to Yerevan.
Gigarosyan, an analyst, concurred.
Because of predictability and because he wants to turn the page, Pachinyan is the best interlocutor [Baku and Ankara] could hope for, he said. He doesn’t seek retribution.
And even though Pashinyan’s approval rating is currently only 20%, his party may emerge as a political phoenix and win the election in June 2026.
Either two former “Karabakh clan” presidents are deeply mistrusted, or they are too split to form sizable coalitions and exert influence on the 107-seat unicameral parliament’s decision-making power.
Source: Aljazeera
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