In an interview with Dozhd TV, Alen Simonyan, Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, commented on claims of an alleged confrontation between the authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church. He stated that the conflict is not with the Church as an institution, but with specific members of the clergy.
"There is no confrontation with the Church. There is a confrontation between people who serve interests that are often outside the Republic of Armenia, and especially those who serve their own personal, financial interests—I don't want to use that word, but let's call them 'intimate' interests," Simonyan stated.
As an example, the speaker cited a hypothetical situation, emphasizing that criticism of individual clergy members should not be perceived as an attack on the religious institution as a whole.
"For example, I would like to give the following example. "Let's say in some country, if it turns out that X, a person who holds a high position in the church, is a pedophile, and if law enforcement reacts to this, or some politician criticizes pedophilia or something like that, would that be an attack on the Church? "You can't hide behind this black robe and think it's an indulgence, that you can do whatever you want with it, and then when they come for you, you say it's an attack on the Church," he said.
Responding to a clarifying question about whom exactly he was referring to, the speaker of parliament noted that he was referring to several high-ranking members of the clergy.
"There are high-ranking members, not very many, a few, let's say four or five high-ranking members of the Church, who are mired in these kinds of situations." "Plus, there's a document confirming that the brother of the current person, who presents himself as Catholicos, is employed, has submitted an application—that is, there's a certificate where he signed up to work with Russia's foreign intelligence service, and so on," Simonyan stated.
He clarified that, by speaking of external forces, he meant Moscow.
"Well, in this case, yes. The example I gave speaks volumes. But there's another point that's very important. Many high-ranking representatives of the Armenian Church have also spoken out against these people. And in this situation, the man calling himself Catholicos has simply begun defrocking them. And these are the highest-ranking representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church. So, he and several of his associates have usurped power and can't even hold their usual hearings and meetings where issues are decided because they don't have a quorum," the speaker added.
As a reminder, the Armenian Prosecutor's Office yesterday opened a criminal case against Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and banned him from leaving the country. A similar ban had previously been imposed on six bishops.
