Armenians protest against the Church

He noted that on the one hand, the Armenian Foreign Ministry is trying to conceal Armenia’s responsibility as a party to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and on the other hand, with these statements confirms that Armenia is a party to the conflict.

“The logical question is: what are the servicemen of the Armenian armed forces doing in the sovereign territories of Azerbaijan? As a result of Armenia’s policy of occupation and territorial expansion against Azerbaijan, Armenian youth are forced to spend the most formative period of their lives in the trenches and serve the occupation policy,” Hajiyev stressed.

He added that the illegal presence of the Armenian forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is the main cause of incidents and provocations on the line of contact of the troops and is a serious threat to regional peace.

“To prevent such a situation, Armenia, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions, must withdraw its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and put an end to the policy of occupation. Only after that, it will be possible to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region,” the spokesman mentioned.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan’s territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from NagornoKarabakh and surrounding regions.

Since its establishment, the AAC has literally been inviolable, and today the Church is an autonomous structure within Armenia, which adheres to its own laws and influences the lives of Armenians.

However, the country’s population is obviously tired of the AAC’s current leadership, and therefore, people protest in Yerevan, demanding the resignation of the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.

The Armenian believers have enough reasons to dislike their Catholicos. Some time ago, at the opening ceremony of a church in Armenia – the country that ranks first in the world in terms of the number of churches – Karekin II was asked whether it is right that churches are being built non-stop while the people in Armenia are starving. The Catholicos replied to the question cynically saying “people will satisfy their hunger through spiritual values.”

Another scandal occurred in early April this year, when a Russian businessman gave Karekin II a heavy golden staff. In an open letter to the Catholicos, the Armenians expressed outrage at the demonstration of the present while a significant part of the population in the country is starving.

Moreover, some years ago an amount of more than $1 million was found at Karekin’s account in a Swiss bank. This also shows the dishonesty of the Armenian Church.

The new wave of dissatisfaction with the Catholicos in the Armenian society started in social networks in late May. Citizens were urged to lock the doors of the Church and not to let the hated Karekin II enter the building.

However, it is doubtful that protests against the Catholicos will go far and lead to any serious consequences. Meanwhile, Karekin II is not worried about the situation and, as Bishop Arshak Khachatryan told journalists, is not going to leave his position.

The most interesting thing is that the Armenian government, to which the AAC does not obey, cannot remove Karekin II from his post. The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the state and the Church are separated in Armenia and the state should not interfere in the work of the Church. Thus, he made it clear to the population that their protests are meaningless and he cannot help them in this regard.

However, the activists from the Armenian population, who have earlier managed to overthrow Serzh Sargsyan and his Republican Party, do not give up and continue their protests against the Church with the hope of making Karekin II leave his position as well.