The "Fact" daily writes: The leader of the Communist Party of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan presented the program of activities of the government he heads at yesterday's session of the National Assembly. There will be another opportunity to dwell in detail on that "epochal" document and the passionate and not so passionate manifestations of the main orator of the day. And before that, we think, there is a need to pay attention to several key issues.
First, what is characteristic of yesterday's program presentation: both in the pre-election period, during the election campaign itself, and after that, Nikol Pashinyan, so to speak, distinguished himself with harsh, offensive, including vulgar expressions, and public threats of physical retribution. But the CP led by him, as many have already noted, has taken the form of displaying well-mannered, civilized behavior in the newly formed National Assembly. Nikol Pashinyan, naturally, quickly dispelled those formal illusions, especially when he referred to the Armenian Apostolic Church and especially the Catholicos of All Armenians. Pashinyan, as is typical of him, used offensive, contemptible and unacceptable vocabulary and descriptions for any Christian, which we will not repeat or quote here, although everyone heard it yesterday.
Now, about the actual program and several key points of the program speech, purely in terms of content, if it is correct to talk about content at all in the case of this government. Pashinyan first announced that the "fourth republic" had been established, and in the context of the death (murder or suicide) of the fourth serviceman in the Armed Forces in the last 11 days, he declared that "the army is developing dynamically." He also said that the preamble to the "new Constitution" (which will still be written in a few months) will not contain a reference to the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Armenia.
But this is no longer surprising, considering both Aliyev's public demand in that regard, and Pashinyan's practical acceptance of it and earlier voicing it. However, one of the main points is the desire of the leader of the Communist Party of Armenia to continue the encroachments against the Armenian Apostolic Church and to give it an institutionalized packaging. In other words, Pashinyan's desires and manifestations against the Armenian Apostolic Church have now been elevated to the level of a "government program". Something that is not only absurd in the case of the nation that first adopted Christianity as the state religion and the state that originally represented that nation, but is also a shame of a cosmic scale and an indelible stigma. Nikol Pashinyan notes in his government program: “In order to ensure the issue of spiritual security, to exclude attempts by external forces to turn the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church into a base for hybrid struggle, and to reform the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, efforts will be made to implement the following agenda:
1) The removal (retirement) of the de facto head of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church will be ensured, and the election of the Catholicosate Vicar will be carried out in accordance with the established procedure.
2) The adoption of the charter of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church will be ensured, which will establish mechanisms for maintaining the established principles, ensuring financial transparency, and the good conduct of the clergy.
3) The election of the Catholicos of All Armenians will be ensured in accordance with the established procedure.” Simply put, Pashinyan has drawn up a government program to remove the Catholicos of All Armenians. This is the most cynical and direct interference in the autonomy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in the autonomous activities of the Church as a religious organization. Circumstances that directly violate the Constitution of Armenia. No secular body, even if it is called a prime minister or super prime minister ten times, has any right to interfere in the affairs of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Regardless of how many psalms the person who applies for such injustice recites or does not recite.
On the other hand, the inclusion of openly anti-church and anti-Catholic provisions in the government program comes to complete the repression and persecution that the Pashinyan government has been conducting for about 2 years against the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Patriarch, and high-ranking clergy. This also has its deep-rooted reasons: the Armenian Apostolic Church continues to remain the most influential and trusted national structure (all surveys testify to this), the Armenian Apostolic Church, being a network structure, continues to have its influence on national life and issues. One of the main ones, the Catholicos of All Armenians and the Armenian Apostolic Church under his leadership, do not retreat in the face of intimidation and repression, continue to pursue national interests, continue to raise issues of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage. And for Pashinyan, who declared the page of the "Karabakh movement" closed and recognized the word Artsakh as no longer prohibited (at least within the framework of the Communist Party), this is unacceptable. In short, the Church is an obstacle and it must be destroyed. In this context, by the way, the announcement of the "fourth republic" is nothing more than the nullification, denial and burial of the historical and political heritage of the "third republic".
In other words, another link in the consistent chain of destruction. But... the "Third Republic" was proclaimed and announced with the Declaration of Independence, in these days of 1990, by the way. And the "fourth"?... with Pashinyan's speech, which received 49 percent of the vote. These are different electoral phenomena. One thing is clear: in the coming days and weeks, new attacks by the Pashinyan government against the Armenian Apostolic Church are expected. And the opposition forces must also be able to find more effective options to resist these attacks in the political field...
Details in today's issue of the "Fact" daily
