“Today we are witnessing a gross violation of Armenia’s constitution, the principle of the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedoms, the independence of the judicial system as well as the autonomy of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church protected by the constitution of and international conventions,” read a joint statement released by the mostly Western-funded groups.
“Representatives of the executive and legislative bodies of Armenia continue to interfere with the autonomy and freedom of the Church's activities, violating Armenia’s constitution and Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, international norms on freedom of religion or belief, and precedent-setting decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),” they said, demanding an immediate end to those actions.
They also deplored the “selective application of instruments of justice” against three archbishops and one bishop arrested since Pashinian began pressuring Garegin to step down in June. The clerics highly critical of the premier are facing different criminal charges rejected by them as politically motivated.
Pashinian has sought to step up the pressure in recent weeks, visiting various churches and attending Sunday masses there led by renegade priests who agreed to avoid uttering Garegin’s name during those services in breach of a centuries-old ecclesiastic rule. Pashinian admitted last week ordering the National Security Service (NSS), the former Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB secret police, try to have liturgies censored this way.
The civic groups, among them the Yerevan Press Club and four human rights watchdogs, strongly condemned the NSS pressure on clergy, saying that it constitutes abuse of power. They also described as illegal “government attempts to interfere in the formation of the church’s governing bodies and its internal decision-making.”
Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of the government have likewise accused Pashinian of violating a constitutional provision that guarantees the church’s separation from the state. The premier and his political allies deny that.
Pashinian said until this month that the main reason why he is trying to oust Garegin and other top clerics at odds with him is that they have had secret sex affairs in breach of their vows of celibacy. He gave a different reason for his campaign in the Armenian parliament on December 3, effectively accusing the supreme head of the church of spying for a foreign intelligence service. He did not offer any proof of the allegation.
Pashinian’s detractors maintain his campaign is aimed at pleasing Azerbaijan and/or neutralizing a key source of opposition to his unilateral concessions to Armenia’s arch-foe. Pashinian began attacking the top clergy in late May right after Garegin accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, destroying the region’s Armenian churches and illegally occupying Armenian border areas during an international conference in Switzerland.