Pashinyan emulating Talaat and Stalin in persecuting Armenian clergy
With each passing day, Armenia is sliding further into dictatorship. The vulgar, even pornographic, language Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has used against the Catholicos of All Armenians and other senior clergy is utterly unbecoming of a head of government. He has jailed dozens of political opponents, as well as two archbishops, and sent his security forces to storm the Armenian Church’s headquarters in Etchmiadzin.
To demonstrate Pashinyan’s abuse of the law, consider his politically motivated order to arrest and imprison Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, the Primate of the Diocese of Shirak. The archbishop has been one of the prime minister’s most vocal critics. On September 26, 2023, during an interview, Ajapahyan called for “a military revolution” to overthrow Pashinyan—remarks that some might interpret as a violation of Armenian law.
However, after a months-long investigation, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued an official letter on April 30, 2024, finding no legal basis to charge the archbishop with a crime. In a normal country, that should have been the end of the story—but not in Armenia.
Last week, following the prime minister’s illegal interference in the judiciary, a court issued a warrant for the archbishop’s arrest for remarks previously deemed lawful. In his desperate attempt to silence dissent, Pashinyan has now declared that the archbishop did violate the law, ordering police to arrest him.
Although the prime minister constantly boasts that Armenia is a democracy, his actions expose its drift toward dictatorship. He is also flagrantly violating the constitutional separation of church and state. The celibacy of the Catholicos is an internal church matter, which is none of the prime minister’s business.
Meanwhile, Pashinyan’s grotesque Facebook rants have included vulgar and obscene taunts, such as inviting the Catholicos and his spokesman to his office to view his genitals to prove he is not circumcised. These posts raise serious questions about the prime minister’s mental stability.
In another puzzling posting, he suggested that from July 1 to 5, he would refrain from using swear words or personal attacks, shifting instead to “civilized and respectful debate, based only on verified facts.” This admission contradicts his self-proclaimed image as an adherent of Christian values—particularly since he is the same man who has written a pornographic book, titled “The Other Side of the Earth.”
Desperate to cling to power ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, Pashinyan is using every means—legal or illegal—to silence his opponents, whether clerics or politicians. Since Catholicos Karekin II has called for his resignation, the prime minister now aims to replace him with a more compliant church leader. He is resorting to such unsavory tactics since his ratings have plummeted from 80% seven years ago to just 8% today—suggesting that he may not retain his seat after the 2026 elections.
As an internal threat far more perilous than any external enemy, Pashinyan has made repeated concessions to Azerbaijan and Turkey that jeopardize Armenia’s future. Regrettably, he is following in the footsteps of Ottoman sultans, Russian czars and Soviet commissars.
Everyone knows the Ottoman Empire’s systematic persecutions and massacres of Armenians in Western Armenia and Cilicia, culminating in the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which began with the execution of Istanbul’s Armenian elite and the butchering of thousands of Armenian clergymen.
Here is a brief list of Russian czars’ and Soviet leaders’ attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church and its clergy:
—On September 2, 1804, Russian troops plundered the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, returning in April 1805 for a second looting.
—On October 1, 1827, Russian General Ivan Paskevich persecuted Catholicos Nerses Ashtaraketsi.
—On March 11, 1836, Czar Nicholas I imposed restrictions on the Armenian Church’s autonomy.
—On June 12, 1903, Czar Nicholas II ordered the confiscation of church properties. After two years of Armenian protest and resistance, the czar reversed his decree in 1905.
—On April 6, 1938, Soviet agents strangled Catholicos Khoren I in his apartment in the Veharan. Dozens of Armenian clergymen were executed.
Though the Ottoman and Soviet empires have vanished, the Armenian Church endures. The tragedy is that, today, the Armenian state itself has become the oppressor.
Last week, Pashinyan deployed hundreds of police officers and masked national security agents to the holy grounds of the Catholicosate, only to withdraw after confrontations with worshippers. We were fortunate that no shots were fired from either side; otherwise, a bloodbath—or even civil war—might have ensued.
Now, as Karekin II refuses to comply with Pashinyan’s order to resign, the prime minister may dispatch security forces to Etchmiadzin to arrest His Holiness—a move that would provoke nationwide and global outcry from Armenians and the entire Christian world, including the Vatican and the World Council of Churches. This would be an appalling stain on the legacy of the world’s first Christian nation.
Instead of trying to resolve Armenian’s existential threats, Pashinyan is busy writing vulgar Facebook posts and attacking the Armenian Church and clergy. It is he, not the Catholicos, who should resign.
Harut Sassounian
If the already powerful and autocratic Pashinyan, becomes a full dictator, just like Putin, Erdogan, Aliyev or Lukashenko, with all opposition parties and groups shut down and suppressed, opposition politicians and activists jailed, and sham elections used for show, shouldn’t a coup d’état (provided there are some patriots still remaining in the Armenian Armed Forces) or a mass uprising, be the last resort? I know the suggestion of a coup d’état will be anathema to liberal Western “sensitivities”, but dictatorship is the eventuality Armenia is heading to under Pashinyan, if no one stops him and deposes him. And a few coup d’états have been done by militaries, to depose civilian leaders who ultimately became dictators, and restore democracy, such as the case of the Carnation Revolution of 1974 in Portugal, where the military officers overthrew the one-party corporatist “Estado Novo” dictatorship, which lasted for 41 years under the dictators Antonio Salazar and Marcelo Caetano, and brought back democracy.
There a more plausible scenario than the one you describe, and it has been raised in the National Assembly. Should the opposition or one of the two opposition parties resign and give up its mandate, it will precipitate a constitutional crisis where the NA will have to be dissolved and a snap general election will have to take place, for the citizens of Armenia to make their choice at the ballot box.
Steve M, you are absolutely correct. As much as I am opposed to Armenian on Armenian violence, a coup would be preferable to Pashinyan’s dictatorial and anti-Armenian regime. Normally, rulers should be changed by elections, but in this case, time is of essence to save Armenia. Were we to wait till June 2026 for the next elections, we may not have an Armenia by then.
In terms of Vahe Apelian’s blind worship of his slave-master, Pashinyan, he is totally distorting my words. Nowhere in my critical analysis of Pashinyan have I used a single word urging violence. If Apelian has any shame, he would apologize to me ASAP for accusing me of encouraging the commission of a crime that is the figment of his imagination. Maybe such twisted criminal thoughts have crossed his mind, but not mine. I suggest that he has his head examined. A psychiatrist may find out that he has a much more serious mental condition than a simple case of slave-master worship.
Harout Sassounian’s claim that the PM of Armenia is emulating Talaat Pasha, is a tacit call to assassinate the PM. That is how the Armenians, dealt with the butcher thanks to diligence and perseverance of ARF to avenge the Armenian honor. Such tacit calls as inflammatory statement should have no place in Armenian journalism.
@Vahe Apelian
What you are sprouting and alleging against Harut Sassounian is a complete and utter lie – and it is libelous. Nowhere did he say that! Just because you don’t like to read or hear the harsh truths about Pashinyan, you resort to verbally attacking people and slandering them. Harut Sassounian previously responded to your verbal attack against him and for distorting facts. But this time, you have gone too far with such an ugly lie bordering on libel, and I am sure he will give you the answer you deserve.
I hope Harut Sassounian sues Vahe Apelian for libel.
Mr. Sassounian’s list of attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church and its clergy is incomplete. Let us not forget the following infamous dates and activities:
– 1933, Christmas Eve morning, Archbishop Gehvont Tourian was stabbed to death during Badarak in front of hundreds of parishioners by a group of Tashnaks.
– 1956, The ARF forcibly took over Antelias, throwing out clergy and bishops (my father being one of them). A parallel Armenian Apostolic Church, under the control of the ARF, split diasporan population centers around the world, weakening unity and economic/lobbying effectiveness.
-1995, Karekin I was elected Catholicos of All Armenians. The ARF, rather than rejoice at the opportunity for a unified Armenian Church and People, greedily held on to the “Great House of Cilica” and the churches beholden to it. Not because of any respect for the Church, but from cold political calculus.
Who, exactly, has best emulated the Armenian people’s worst enemies? What value does the ARF see in the Armenian Church other than as a base for its political machinations and indoctrination?
Having done much greater historical harm than the throttling of the Khoren I, the rules of Czarist polozhenie, or the Ottoman National Constitution, the ARF today stands as a “protector” and “defender” of Etchmiadzin and the Armenian Church? I would laugh at this joke, if it were not so desperately tragic.
The fact of the matter is that the ARF’s only purpose in drawing attention to this tempest-in-a-teapot is to make its own dismal chances better in the next election. Pashinyan’s and his party’s government have made grave errors and can be rightly criticized for many domestic and foreign policy failures. What does it say that in the face of all their mistakes – even with the shame of losing Artsakh during their watch – Pashinyan’s party is *still* preferable (even with an 8% approval rating) to the ARF and their hypocrite sold-out kin (Kocharyan, Oskanyan, et.al).
It says, the average Armenian is much more perceptive and savvy than Mr. Sassounian and the ARF think they are.
In his anti-ARF obsession, Kalayjian is willing to excuse Talaat’s horrendous genocide of 1.5 million Armenians and Stalin’s criminal actions against the Armenian apostolic Church. The events of 1956, misinterpreted by him, have left a life-long scar on his mentality.
I’m sure that space and time prevented a longer response in which a proper interpretation of 1956 and ARF history vis-à-vis the Armenian Apostolic Church could have been presented. I would have liked to compare your interpretation to that of my father’s, who was there in Antelias during the events in question.
In the meantime, since you accused me of being an apologist for Talaat and Stalin, let me add the following point, which I hope you can also address at a later opportunity: if we believe that the Armenian Church is part of the Universal and Eternal body of Christ, which transcends (yet blesses and fulfills) nation, culture and language, and if we believe in Christ’s promise of eternal life, and that we should not fear those who take our earthly lives but cannot touch our souls, and if we believe all struggles will cease at Christ’s Second Coming, as the Armenian Church teaches, then – if we believe all this is Truth, it follows that: the Genocide and Purges and all crimes against us in the past or future do indeed mean much less to us as Armenian Christians than the division of our Church. The latter has eternal ramifications, while the former could only affect our mortal bodies. This is why Talaat’s effort to destroy Armenia and Armenians, while evil, are not as damaging to the Armenian Christian as the ARF’s rending of the Church in two.
The unity and health of the Body of Christ is more important than politics. If the ARF held this view, there would no longer be a Catholicos in Cilicia. This is the inherent contradiction and tragedy of your position and that of the ARF: it is attempting to defend the very Church it has wounded. If believing this makes me an apologist for evil in your view, then there is much more division between us than I thought. One cannot prioritize the human and temporary over the eternal without profound consequences (or “scars,” as you say), for only eternal things are meaningful. God is eternal, as is the Body of Christ and our souls. Is the ARF eternal that it should be prioritized over the Church?
@Zaven Kalayjian
You don’t have to like, support or agree with the ARF and its ideology, but claiming that the ARF has damaged the Armenian Apostolic Church and has split the Church in two, is a blatant lie, and comparing the ARF to Talaat, is outrageous and obscene. The greatest damage inflicted to the Armenian Apostolic Church as well as to the Armenian nation, after the Turks, Bolsheviks and Azeris, is Pashinyan.
Zaven Khanjian has misread Harout Sassounian, who castigated Zaven because Harout claims that Zaven “In his anti-ARF obsession, is willing to excuse Talaat’s horrendous genocide of 1.5 million Armenians” Harout has already stated that Pashinyan emulates Talaat Pasha and in intentionally drawing such a parallel, Harout has tacitly offered the way out, assassination of Armenia’s PM. Why would Sassounian draw such parallel? Why would he castigate Zaven claiming that Zaven “is willing to excuse Talaat”?
And you Steve M, need not be defensive. Although not in my teens in Lebanon, I lived through it all and beyond, the politicizations of the Armenian church and I supported and support ARF’s actions during those cold war days. Armenian church has and will be subject to political gamesmanship as long as Armenia is not a sovereign republic. I support the policy of the Pashinyan government because it may lead to a sovereign, democratic republic of Armenia in peace with its immediate neighbors and with the regional and global powers, as its interests dictates and thus have the Armenian church sheltered and unto the fold of the sovereign Armenian nation.
@Vahe Apelian
Harut Sassounian has not implied the assassination of Pashinyan. That is your delusional imagination. Harut Sassounian is within his right to sue you for libel.
Pashinyan’s actions in suppressing and arresting opposition figures on spurious charges of “terrorism” or “coup d’état attempts”, shows that he is no democrat, but an autocrat. He has surpassed his predecessors in authoritarian rule and will do anything to stay in power. Expecting free and fair elections, and a fair playing field for the opposition, under him, is wishful thinking. Since his popularity hit rock bottom after the Second Artsakh War and declined even further after the 2021 elections, he has no chance of winning an election fairly and squarely. That is why he is heading into dictator mode and that is why he urgently needs to go.
The best punishment for your loser “hero” Pashinyan, is permanent exile, preferably where there is no Armenian diaspora. He would disturb the peace of the Armenian diaspora communities with his presence, where he is already persona non grata. There are 144 countries out of 194 countries, where there are hardly any Armenians. That is where he should spend the rest of his life with his wife, far away from Armenia and Armenian diaspora communities. And in likelihood, he will.
Vahe, you are so blinded by the worship of your slave-master, that you are hallucinating about living in peace with our bloodthirsty enemies. People like you are more dangerous to Armenia’s survival than even Pashinyan because without blind supporters Pashinyan would not be in power. You are guiltier than Pashinyan for Armenia’s potential destruction.
I see. Mr. Sassounian’s reply to my first post was that I’m mentally scarred due to unspecified misinterpretations, and your reply to my second post is that I’m teller of blatant lies. Can anyone here offer a more substantive rebuttal?
I thought the purpose of this forum was for dialogue between different points of view. I’ve carefully laid out my case. Please show how/where/why my conclusions are wrong or how I have lied.
The BBC which is not known for lurid articles stated that Pashinyan in response to claims by clergy that he is circumcised had offered to reveal himself to the accusing clerics so clearly he is calling their bluff and thus is safe to assume that he is not circumcised which would indeed be odd for an Armenian man, the clergy shouldn’t have made such a vulgar claim which is presumably slanderous and he shouldn’t offer to commit exposure to ordained clergy either even if in response to accusatory claims.