Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanian welcomed Pashinian in an Armenian church in Estonian’s capital Tallinn at the start of the latter’s visit to the Baltic state on Sunday. He said he is “praying for the success of the plans for peace and reconciliation with Armenia’s neighbors which you, Mr. Prime Minister, have.”
Mirzakhanian, who heads the Armenian Church diocese encompassing Estonian and neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, referred to Pashinian’s appeasement policies towards Azerbaijan and Turkey which the church’s leadership as well as Armenian opposition groups say can only spell more trouble for Armenia.
Mirzakhanian went on to call for Armenia to “take steps towards the European Union” by following the example of the three Baltic countries that were at loggerheads with Russia even before joining the EU two decades ago.
“May the Lord bless Armenia, its entire leadership and you,” added he archbishop, who took over the small diocese just a month ago.
Armenian opposition members and supporters expressed outrage at his remarks on social media. Some of them demanded explanations from the church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin.
“Some of the thoughts and judgments expressed by the Diocesan Primate are highly subjective, personal, and cannot be attributed to the Church,” read a statement released by the press office of the Mother See.
“When expressing opinions on any issue, especially when there is no official position of the Church, clergy should exercise some discretion and caution so as not to give rise to misinterpretations,” it said.
Pashinian’s relationship with the ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians belong, has increasingly deteriorated in recent years and especially since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen have joined the Armenian opposition in blaming Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war and Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh in 2023. The premier has accused them of meddling in politics.
One of those clerics, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, led in May and June last year anti-government protests sparked by Pashinian's controversial territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. The church’s Supreme Spiritual Council voiced support for Galstanian and his supporters as they marched to Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s resignation. Galstanian referred to Pashinian as “Antichrist.”
Pashinian denounced the church and threatened to impose new taxes on it. In recent years, he has boycotted Easter and Christmas masses led by Garegin and rarely visited churches in Armenia.
In his most recent Easter message to the nation read out on April 20, Garegin condemned “reprehensible attempts to deny or question” the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. It appeared to be a stern rebuke to Pashinian, who declared in January that Armenians should “understand what happened” in 1915. Armenian historians, opposition figures and retired diplomats accused Pashinian of casting doubt on the fact of the genocide officially recognized by over three dozen countries, including the United States.