The topic related to the church is very sensitive; this is purely about the church adhering to its own rules. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Germany on an official visit, stated this during a meeting held at the German Council on Foreign Affairs in Berlin—and responding to a remark that there is hostile attitude from the Armenian Apostolic Church toward the incumbent Armenian authorities.

“We [i.e. the Armenian authorities] want transparency, accountability, compliance with the rules of the Armenian Apostolic Church. I mean the compliance of the clergy because a situation of non-compliance makes clergy more vulnerable to external influence and, forgive me for phrasing it this way, can turn them into a tool for external influence. We only want compliance of the Church, the clergy, and the Church leadership,” Pashinyan said.

“No one knows how our Church is funded, how much money is coming in [to it], how it is spent. You know what the biggest problem is? Some of the leaders of the [Armenian Apostolic Church] clergy live in shameful luxury, while some ordinary clergy live in poverty, and that is a problem; it causes harm to the moral atmosphere of our country,” he noted.

“We want a value-based society, but it is impossible to have a value-based society when the epicenter of our value system is ‘infected.’ And we need to have reforms; we need our Church to be transparent before our society, and to have tools to check the integrity, etc. of clergy and church members. Our agenda is completely transparent without any hidden or secret agendas,” Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM denied claims that his government and he himself act against the Armenian Apostolic Church. “That is impossible because I am a follower and believer of the Armenian Apostolic Church, I am a believer in Jesus Christ. Recently, I stated that Jesus Christ is my heart, and I cannot act against Jesus Christ, against my Church. It is my Church, you know, and it is our Church; more than 90 percent of our government members are followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and we want the Church to be compliant, transparent, accountable, honest, and value-based,” the Armenian premier concluded.