The Past daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: [PM] Nikol Pashinyan and his CC [i.e. the ruling Civil Contract Party and its parliamentary faction] members have launched another “action” of the anti-church campaign. A campaign that began immediately after the change of power in 2018, sometimes with frenzied intensity, sometimes with supposedly “taking a break,” but in reality “from below” fighting against every national, including the AAC [i.e. the Armenian Apostolic Church]. Now they have resumed the attack with new intensity and a new “level.”

This topic is one of the most hotly discussed in the last few days, which was also addressed by the “Republic Square” Telegram channel, specifically writing that the Pashinyan-Azerbaijan tandem has targeted the Armenian Apostolic Church. “Pashinyan and the CC are fighting against the Armenian Apostolic Church within the country, for whom traditional Armenian values, state and religious institutions, and the Armenian Apostolic Church are alien and an internal enemy. The CC is fighting, mocking the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Catholicos [of All Armenians], thereby serving the interests of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem, since the Armenian Apostolic Church today stands in the positions of supporting the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] issue, the Armenian Cause, and the struggle for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”

The authors recall that Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II recently criticized in Switzerland the aggression of Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, and the de-Armenianization of Artsakh, the ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts carried out against the Armenians of Artsakh. That is, the Armenian Apostolic Church criticizes Pashinyan’s strategic allies—Turkey and Azerbaijan—after which Pashinyan begins to criticize, insult the srbazans [i.e. the high-ranking clergymen], the Armenian Apostolic Church, on his Facebook page, with the dirtiest vocabulary.

“Pashinyan’s posts indicate that he will continue to target the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Mother See [of Holy Etchmiadzin], and thereby fulfill two tasks. First, he serves the interests of the [Turkish president] Erdogan-[Azerbaijani president] Aliyev tandem and carries out their instructions. Second, Pashinyan wants to attract the votes of about 350 thousand sectarians of Armenia and their family members. By targeting the Armenian Apostolic Church, Pashinyan wants to also win the support of sectarians in the 2026 NA [i.e. the National Assembly] elections. Pashinyan and his [political] team are dismantling the pillars of Armenian statehood: the Armenian Army, the Mother See, and Armenian-Russian ties.

(…) the Armenian-Russian military alliance is a counterbalance to the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem, and the CC is dismantling the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance so that the capture of [Armenia’s] Syunik [Province] by Baku would be easier,” the authors write, adding that, thus, Pashinyan and his [political] team are destroying the pillars of Armenian statehood from within the country, thereby serving Aliyev’s “Western Azerbaijan” concept.