A motorcade of cars led by him made brief stops in two local towns before reaching the border village of Sotk which was heavily shelled by Azerbaijani troops in September 2022 during deadly fighting at several sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Several other Gegharkunik villages lost much of their pastures and agricultural land after Azerbaijani military offensives carried out at that time and in May 2021. Like Sotk, they became endangered border communities as a result of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh that allowed Azerbaijan to regain control of the neighboring Kelbajar district.
Galstanian blamed Pashinian for that when he spoke during a rally held in Sotk. “My visit today has one purpose: to show the whole disaster what has been brought upon us,” he said.
“We are facing decisive days, we are facing a piecemeal surrender of our homeland. Some led by that liar will not turn back from the path that is imposed on them, not negotiated,” he charged, alluding to Pashinian and his territorial concessions to Azerbaijan that sparked the antigovernment protests led by the archbishop.
Galstanian again strongly condemned the Armenian government’s decision to give Baku several disputed border areas adjacent to border villages in another Armenian province, Tavush. He headed the provincial diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church until marching to Yerevan last month to demand Pashinian’s resignation.
Pashinian has rejected the demands backed by a wide range of Armenian opposition groups. The latter have also endorsed Galstanian’s candidacy for the post of prime minister. Pashinian’s political allies say that the protest movement is dying down and will fizzle out soon.
The outspoken archbishop hopes that his next Yerevan rally scheduled for this Sunday will prove them wrong. He urged supporters on Wednesday to attend it “in very large numbers,” saying that it will a “preparation for our next, hopefully final and victorious step.”
“If we don’t prevail now … the next generations will curse us 20, 30 years later,” he said in Sotk. “I don’t want to come under that curse.”