Hayk Tsirunian took the selfie and posted it on Facebook during a session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy taking place in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
“His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church,” he wrote above the photo.
In fact, the clean-shaven cleric, who looks distinctly different from Orthodox clergymen, is Catholic Archbishop Aurel Perca of Bucharest. Tsirunian removed the inaccurate description from his post later in the day after being alerted by some of his followers.
“Thank you, I think Perca will forgive my mistake, and so will Daniel,” commented the lawmaker.
Tsirunian touted his joint appearance with the “Romanian Patriarch” amid Pashinian’s continuing vicious attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church. In a series of social media posts, Pashinian has alleged that many of its senior clergymen have had secret sex affairs in breach of their vows of celibacy and must therefore be defrocked. He has not offered any proof of his claims.
The attacks have triggered furious reactions from opposition leaders, public figures and ordinary Armenians. The Armenian Apostolic Church strongly condemned Pashinian’s “shameful campaign” on Monday during an emergency meeting of its top clergy chaired by Catholicos Garegin II.
Critics have accused Pashinian of coordinating the campaign with Azerbaijan. They argue that it followed Azerbaijani officials’ renewed criticism of the Armenian Church that has blamed Pashinian for the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh and denounced his unilateral concessions to Baku.
Garegin addressed late last week an international conference in Switzerland on the preservation of Karabakh’s Armenian religious and cultural heritage. He again accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Karabakh and illegally occupying Armenian border areas. He also denounced the ongoing “sham trials” of eight former Karabakh leaders captured during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive.
Incidentally, Archbishop Perca attended later in 2023 an event organized by the Armenian Church diocese in Romania in support of Karabakh’s displaced population. He expressed his sympathy to the Karabakh Armenians.
