2023-05-20 09:05:47
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan believes that when the church and the state mix together, there is nothing more dangerous than that.
“The state should deal with its business, the church should deal with its business, although it must be said that they are not always distinguished and separated from each other, because there are many issues that intersect,” Nikol Pashinyan stated at a meeting with schoolchildren in Tavush. :
He gave a long-discussed example.
“The Armenian Apostolic Church wants that a number of products, whenever they are imported for the needs of the church, should be considered charitable and not subject to other customs fees. For example, such is paraffin, from which candles are made. We see very serious fundamental problems there.
Principle issue number one: if we, for example, clear paraffin as part of a charity program, then wax should not be sold. We say: very well, we are ready to do it, but don’t sell the candle, just put it away, let the believers come and take it, let there be a treasury, whoever pays as much as they want, because it is against the law. The law says if it’s charitable, you can’t make money from it later.
The second option is to sell the candle in full, register it, pay the appropriate taxes to the state budget, but we say that we will return all the taxes paid and something more to the church, that is, the government will not keep anything for the state budget. In other words, we give two options: either paraffin, from which candles are made, is not charged with appropriate fees, and in that case it becomes a charity product and candles are not sold in our churches, or the sale of candles, all items, takes place in accordance with RA legislation, and taxes are collected from it. taxes and I, the government, say: whatever is collected, we will return everything to the church. I mean, there are such intersecting places,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
He noted that their principle is that relations should be legal, legal and within the framework of RA legislation and Constitution.
“But there is also the following circumstance. if the church wants to carry out political activities, Armenia is a democratic country, it can also carry out political activities, nothing prevents them from creating a party and carrying out political activities within its framework, which, I think, will be more honest”, he emphasized. the prime minister
According to him, the church cannot be higher than the state.
“It simply cannot,” Pashinyan added.
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