“Why bring traveling circus to Gyumri if all priests refuse to omit the name of His Holiness?”– political scientist to Pashinyan

 On Sunday, another performance of the traveling circus will take place in Gyumri, and it is not a liturgy, political scientist Gagik Hambaryan said in an interview with Aysor.am.

“Things have reached the point where, using his official position, a person sends NSS officers and other law enforcement representatives to churches and issues demands. According to information circulating in the media and in Gyumri, not a single priest in the diocese has agreed to omit the name of His Holiness during services. If they haven’t agreed, why bring this traveling circus to Gyumri? Pashinyan is effectively removing priests scheduled to serve the liturgy and bringing in someone who will do what he wants,” he said.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had earlier announced that he would attend the December 7 liturgy at the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God.

Hambaryan believes Pashinyan chose the Cathedral because it is the presiding church of the Shirak Diocese and holds great significance within the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“Most importantly, the Cathedral was the long-time residence of Archbishop Michael, who is now imprisoned. By coming to Gyumri and staging this event, Pashinyan is trying to demonstrate his revenge toward the people of Gyumri. It’s obvious he neither loves nor accepts them. He has not forgiven the people of Gyumri for the 2021 and 2025 local elections. He is so insincere that he didn’t even congratulate them on Gyumri’s city holiday. Organizing this event in the Cathedral is another attempt to take revenge,” the political scientist said.

Hambaryan also argued that “one should be ashamed to go to a church where you are openly rejected,” and questioned the scale of the preparations.

“How much is all this costing? The regional governor is involved, as well as the director of the Shirak branch of one of the Yerevan universities, and NSS officers have been deployed to various churches. What is the price of creating this whole spectacle around his visit? Pashinyan’s competition with himself to see how much damage he can inflict on the Armenian Apostolic Church is no longer even a topic of debate. He behaves like a classic sectarian, and all his actions stem from that,” Hambaryan stated.

Speaking about the arrest of Archbishop Arshak, Hambaryan said it is entirely political and emphasized that “everyone knows Archbishop Arshak is an even greater enemy for Pashinyan than Karekin II.”

“It is very ridiculous. An incident that allegedly happened seven years ago and that no one knew about is suddenly being used as a basis for arrest.

But I want to draw attention to one circumstance: the person whose bag was allegedly used to plant drugs is the son of former Rev. Koryun – the same individual who, along with others, attacked the Pontifical Residence in the summer of 2018. Just a month ago, reports circulated that a citizen had accused Rev. Koryun of taking 29,000 USD and 2 kilograms of silver and not returning them. The Investigative Department refused to open a case against him due to lack of evidence. And now, just a month later, we see this new incident involving his son. It’s simply ridiculous,” said Gagik Hambaryan.