2024-05-01 09:36:17
Author: Elchin Alioglu, Trend
The events and processes taking place in Armenia are not just the resistance of “opposition groups” controlled from the outside against the government. The conflict between the Armenian Apostolic Church (EAC) and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the country has already reached the level of hostility.
In December 2020, during a visit to Syunik (Zangezur) province of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan visited a church in Ssiyan. When the prime minister, lighting a candle in the church, approached the priest, shook his hand and wanted to meet, the priest demonstratively raised his hands and refused to meet.
There was nothing surprising: after the 44-day Second Karabakh War, when Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II began to openly and harshly criticize the government, the relationship between the government and the church was completely broken.
Starting from 2021, N. Pashinyan refused to congratulate Catholicos II Garegin on his birthday. The media under the control of N. Pashinyan, and especially the Public Television of Armenia, were instructed to provide minimal information about the activities of Catholicos II Gareghi and not to receive interviews from him.
Last year, the conflict between the government and the church reached its peak in Armenia.
Nikol Pashinyan declared that the church cannot be higher than the state under any circumstances.
“There is nothing dangerous in mixing the functions of the church and the state. Although there are intersections in many issues, the state should do its work and the church should do its work. If the Armenian Apostolic Church wants to engage in political activity, let it be, Armenia is a democratic country, they should create a political party for themselves. they can. In any case, this would be more honest behavior in relation to political rivals and voters,” said N. Pashinyan.
The response of the Armenian Church was harsh.
“If someone wants to study religion, he can try to enter the Religious Seminary. Of course, if he exceeds the educational limit and can show convincing arguments about his relatively good health,” Arshak Khachatryan, head of the office of the Armenian Church, said.
When the issue of liberating and returning our 8 villages occupied by Armenia since 32 years came up, the Armenian Apostolic Church (EAC) unequivocally took a radical position against N. Pashinyan.
EAK made repeated statements and stated that those villages – you say – “are ancient and historical Armenian territories, they cannot be given to Azerbaijan under any circumstances”.
It should be recalled that in the early 1990s, Armenians occupied eight villages on the territory of Azerbaijan. 4 of them – Baganis Ayrym, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Kyzylaagagli – are located directly in the territory of Gazakh region.
Three villages – Yukhari Eskipara, Sofulu and Barhudarli are enclaves surrounded by Armenian territories. Another enclave is the village of Karki, located on the border of Armenia with Nakhchivan.
The extremely radical and strict position of the EAK, of course, caused the patience of the Armenian authorities to overflow.
“Saint Etchmiadzin violates at least one of the 10 Christian obligations – “Tell no lies!” – They knowingly and deliberately spread false information and misinformation, try to create confusion in society and incite mass protests,” – a deputy from the ruling “Civil Agreement” Party in Armenia Vahan Aleksanyan said.
According to him, the Armenian people believe in Nikol Pashinyan, not archbishops and priests who have offshore companies and millions of dollars in wealth in different countries of the world.
After the liberation of Baganis Ayrym, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Kyzylaagagli villages and preparations for their handover to Azerbaijan, EAK almost fell into hysteria.
After the soldiers of the Armenian Army left the positions around these villages and the procedure of clearing the area from mines began, the head of the Tavush diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, priest Bagrat Galstan (Srbazan), went to the scene.
For two weeks now, priest Bagrat has become the leader, almost the ideologist, of the “protesters” who came from Yerevan and other parts of Armenia to the area between the Armenians in those areas and the villages of Kiran and Ashagi Eskipara.
Among those trying to block the road and holding a non-stop protest are the people of the former presidents of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, members of the former terrorist junta in Khankend, those who are trying to regain their place in the political arena, people sent by the leaders of the Armenian community in Russia on mercenary terms, etc. there is
If the Apostolic Church of Armenia is one of the structures leading, planning and financing the protests, Reverend Bagrat is the “spiritual leader” of the actions in the Tavush (Tovuzgala) district.
What happened, as we mentioned, is not a chain of coincidences, but a well-thought-out process.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, which has been playing the role of a center uniting world Armenians for centuries, has directly participated in the preparation of the most insidious, dirty deeds, plans and scenarios against the Ottoman Turks and our people throughout history.
The Armenian Church is directly responsible for the flare-up of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian separatism in Karabakh, Armenia’s invasion plans and territorial claims.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, which is based on Monophysite religious ideologies, differs sharply from all other aspects of Christianity and does not consider any other Christian church “perfect” in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglican Church, etc. it is almost considered a sect.
Since the Armenian Church, divided into two centers such as Cilicia and Etchmiadzin, is monophysite in spirit, for example, according to Orthodoxy, an Armenian priest can be considered a “normal Christian” only after repentance.
Of course, all this is theology, and we do not intend to comment extensively on points related to religious studies.
However, the recent processes in Armenia show that the dangerous ideas that have dominated the Armenian society for centuries are still valid, that the Armenian Apostolic Church insists on staying away from reality, and worst of all, it does not give up its intention to increase the tension in the neighboring country to the maximum.
Armenian clerics, especially the priests in Tavush and Zangezur, are propagandists of revanchist ideas and openly demand a new war.
In their illusions, the borders of Armenia start from the western banks of the Kura River and end in Trabzon and Şanlıurfa provinces of Turkey. Moreover, this illusion is an intermediate dream: Echmiadzin presents the ideal of “Great Armenia” to Armenians as a historical fact, and tries to instill in them that it is better to live with crude dreams instead of reality.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, which describes the signing of the peace agreement with Azerbaijan, the process of demarcation and delimitation of the conditional state border, the realization of the Zangezur corridor project, and the normalization of relations with Turkey as “treason”, is currently hostile to the power of Nikol Pashinyan.
Will official Yerevan be able to cope with this threat?
The answer will be known soon.