The scandal marked a new low in his tense relationship with the ancient church to which the vast majority of Armenians belong. Some of its followers critical of the Armenian government went as far as to call for Pashinian’s excommunication.
Speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday that discussed issues not related to religion, Pashinian claimed that many churches across the country look like “closets” and are littered with construction waste. Neither he nor his press secretary gave any concrete examples.
Pashinian reportedly visited four old churches during a recent tour of the southeastern Syunik province. Three of them are currently undergoing repairs or reconstruction, according to the head of provincial diocese, Archbishop Makar Hakobian.
“If there is construction there, naturally there will be cement bags and metal objects lying there,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
A view of the medieval Tatev monastery in Syunik province, 16Oct2010.
Bishop Hovnan Hakobian, who leads another church diocese encompassing the northern Lori province, reacted angrily to Pashinian’s claims later on Thursday, branding him “the country’s main sick man” and “main traitor.” In a social media post, he linked the claims to Azerbaijan’s strong condemnation of this week’s international conference in Switzerland on the preservation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian religious and cultural heritage. The conference was attended by Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the church.
Pashinian appeared to respond to Hakobian when he wrote on Facebook the following morning: “Monsignor, keep banging your uncle’s wife. What’s your problem with me?”
In a series of other posts, Pashinian alleged that many senior clergymen have had secret sex affairs in breach of their vows of celibacy and must therefore be defrocked. He did not name any of them.
The church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin did not officially react to the allegations as of Friday evening. But the head of its chancellery, Archbishop Arshak Khachatrian, did hit back at Pashinian as well as his influential wife Anna Hakobian, who added her voice to the premier’s verbal attacks. He suggested that the couple is headed to “the abyss of destruction where there is ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Pashinian also drew strong condemnation from a wide range of Armenian opposition groups. Artur Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Hayastan alliance, accused him of “hooliganism.”
“This is not anti-church propaganda, this is the behavior of a hooligan who has cut off contact,” agreed Aram Abrahamian, the veteran editor of the independent Aravot daily.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian kisses a cross held by Catholicos Garegin II during an Easter Mass at Yerevan’s St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, April 21, 2019.
Significantly, Pashinian’s obscene post drew more “dislikes” than “likes” from readers. Many of them also made angry comments.
“It’s just shameful, this behavior doesn’t befit a leader of a country,” wrote one man. “Mr. Prime Minister, you are followed by a large number of teenagers and your every ill-considered word affects the country’s reputation.”
Most of the Yerevan residents randomly interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service echoed the criticism. “He should strengthen the country’s army and security and address people’s socioeconomic problems before commenting on the clergy,” said one man.
Some respondents reacted to Pashinian’s posts with disbelief. “Do you think he really wrote that?” said one woman.
Meanwhile, lawmakers representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, strongly defended his use of profanities against the church.
“I would also give that description to blasphemous clergymen,” one of them, Artur Hovannisian, told reporters.
Pashinian’s relationship with the Armenian Church has increasingly deteriorated in recent years and especially since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen have joined the Armenian opposition in blaming Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war and Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh in 2023. The premier has accused them of meddling in politics.
One of those clerics, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, led in May and June last year anti-government protests sparked by Pashinian’s controversial territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. The church’s Supreme Spiritual Council voiced support for Galstanian and his supporters as they marched to Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s resignation. Galstanian referred to Pashinian as “Antichrist.” Pashinian denounced the church and threatened to impose new taxes on it.
