Robert Amsterdam: Pashinyan is placing himself ‘above God’ in assault on Armenian church
The following statement was released by Amsterdam & Partners LLP on Friday.
In a move without any legitimate basis in law, Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s increasingly autocratic leader who was unable to secure even half of the vote in June’s parliamentary elections, has decided that his government should determine the future leadership and direction of the Armenian Apostolic Church, ignoring religious freedom standards.
The confrontation has now reached an extraordinary new stage. Pashinyan’s government has placed what it calls Armenia’s “spiritual security” and reform of the Church on its political agenda, while proposing a parliamentary investigation into an alleged “deep systemic crisis” within the Church that could be followed by legislative changes.
This comes after months of escalating pressure on the Armenian Apostolic Church. Senior clergy have been arrested and prosecuted, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, has been placed on trial, and Pashinyan has repeatedly demanded his removal.
Now the government is seeking to move beyond attacking individual clergy and toward reshaping the Church itself.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the oldest Christian institutions in existence. It survived centuries of foreign rule, persecution, genocide and Soviet repression, preserving Armenian faith and identity even during periods when an independent Armenian state did not exist. Its leadership is determined according to its own ecclesiastical structures and traditions—not according to the political preferences of whichever government happens to hold office in Yerevan.
The Supreme Spiritual Council this week rejected the government’s latest intervention, declaring that “the National Assembly is not a competent platform for discussing internal church matters” and that reform of the Church “cannot be carried out under external pressure, threats, or any such arbitrariness.”
Robert Amsterdam, Founder and Managing Partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, states:
“Nikol Pashinyan is behaving as though there is no institution in Armenia beyond his personal authority. He has now placed himself above Parliament, above the Church and, apparently, above God.
“For nearly two thousand years, the Armenian Apostolic Church has survived emperors, dictators, persecution and genocide. Now the Prime Minister believes that he can decide who should lead it, how it should govern itself and what Armenians should understand their Church to be.
“This is not reform. It is an attempted political takeover of an independent religious institution.
“The silence of the international community is becoming impossible to justify. If a government attempted to determine the leadership and internal governance of an ancient religious institution anywhere else in Europe, there would rightly be outrage.
“The Church does not belong to Nikol Pashinyan. It does not belong to his government. It belongs to its faithful, and its independence must be defended.”
Amsterdam & Partners calls upon governments, religious leaders, human rights organisations and Armenian communities throughout the world to speak publicly against political interference in the Armenian Apostolic Church and to defend its right to determine its own leadership and internal affairs free from state coercion.
Amsterdam & Partners LLP is an international law firm specialising in political advocacy and human rights, based in London and Washington, DC.
