On 14 June, the Armenian Apostolic Church responded to the statements of the country’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the election campaign, saying that Pashinyan continues to make unjust accusations against the Church.

“The attitude of the current government towards the national and spiritual values of the Church is known to our people,” read the statement of the Church. “The behaviour of the Acting Prime Minister towards the Church and the clergy should be considered in this context. The Armenian Church, despite all kinds of obstacles and the attitude of the authorities, will continue to implement its soul-saving, patriotic mission in the life of the Armenian people,” it added. 

Pashinyan attacked the church during at least two of his campaign rallies, saying that traditional values in the country were discredited by “corrupt clergymen.” He claimed that the clergy is a part of Armenia’s traditional political, intellectual, and spiritual elites that “did everything” to prevent the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought him to power or make it a failure. He said the country needs another revolution to get rid of these elites. In his most recent rally, Pashinyan drew parallels to the story of King Tiridates, who had taken the form of a pig, but St. Gregory the Illuminator had returned him to his human form, calling the previous authorities “the pig-form”, noting that there was a huge Christian symbolism in Armenia’s political narrative. “It is about the internal content and relations with the people. We have established a Christian government in Armenia because our government has based itself on the voice of many, and the voice of many: the voice of God,” he stressed.

The acting PM also urged again for replacing the “velvet revolution” with a “steel revolution,” elaborating what it would mean in the practice. “It means strengthening institutions of law enforcement, it means a dictatorship of the law, and we will go down that path with your mandate,” he underscored.

In the meantime, Pashinyan’s biggest election rival Robert Kocharyan spoke on the idea of re-establishing the de facto Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. “The biggest problem is that the trilateral statement [of 9 November 2020] is envisioned for a period of five years. In 4.5 years, Azerbaijan may demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers [from the area]; this creates a lot of uncertainty. First of all, we [the Armenian side] need to get assurances that this will not happen,” he said. “We are entering the negotiation process from very weak positions. I link the strengthening and restoration of the [Armenian] army to the negotiation process. The sooner we restore the army, the stronger our positions will be,” Kocharyan added. The “Armenia” bloc leader also spoke of raising army expenses, prolonging the “life” of the Metsamor nuclear power plant and Armenia’s potential to export electricity.