Grigor Abegha Minasyan, congregant of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, wrote:
"What is happening these years around the spiritual and cultural heritage of Artsakh cannot be described in any other way than a civilized crime. While the international community continues its "balanced" silence, as if nothing extraordinary is happening, the attitude of today's political majority in Inner Armenia is even more shocking.
When the government, while seeing the desecration and annihilation of Armenian churches in Artsakh, in order to divert the public's attention, tries to form a false agenda of taxing the church, which is essentially a cheap trick. This is not a quest for economic justice, but a campaign against spiritual and national values, which has made the alignment of the authorities with hostile agendas clearer during these months.
This policy, carried out under the philanthropic slogans of the "Era of Peace", often borders on self-deprecation. To remain silent about cultural genocide for the sake of possible tolerance is to encourage the perpetrator. When one's own government "does not notice" the destruction of churches, but looks for internal "defects" with a magnifying glass, it is evidence of pro-state thinking and a deepening crisis.
The authorities of Azerbaijan are consistently erasing the Armenian trace from our historical homeland. In this context, the anti-church rhetoric of the God-denying government of Armenia is nothing more than a gift on a platter to the enemy's propaganda machine. By weakening the only nationwide institution of internal national consolidation, the Church, the government consciously becomes the tool with which the enemy's long-standing dream is realized: to depopulate not only the land, but also the soul of the Armenians.
Many representatives of the government are like those who light candles in front of the eternal altars, recite psalms in front of the cameras, but behind the scenes are preparing the ground for the destruction of the Church. That type lacks any sanctity. This is a political sorcery, where national dignity is sold under the name of "peace", and the public is tried to be fed with the image of an internal enemy, diverting attention from the cultural genocide of Artsakh and the just claim of the Armenian Genocide. Today, the Lord's warning is more than relevant. Woe to you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, while inside they are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filthiness. You also try to appear fair to people on the outside, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
History will be cruel to those who sell the sanctities of the Armenian people under the mask of "piety" and silently write the obituary of their own culture. A patriotic statesman is obliged to protect what has kept the nation for centuries, not to become the executioner of these values for the sake of temporary narrow political interests.
