The Children of Kharberd
Photographs © Onnik James Krikorian 2000-2004
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Opinion: Armenia Close To The Brink
Opposition Protest, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Armenia © Onnik James Krikorian 2007 Bagrat Galstanyan, the hardline cleric who led street protests against the start of border demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan and called for the resignation or impeachment of...
Armenia’s Rift Between Church and State Deepens
Armenia finds itself in deepening discord between its political and religious elites. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s unprecedented public attacks on Catholicos Karekin II, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, mark further escalation in a personal feud waged since the 2018 Velvet Revolution. It has worsened each year since, and not least since Karekin II approved the participation of his own clergy to join protests against Pashinyan in 2022 and for one to lead them in 2024.
Pashinyan Escalates Tensions With Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenia is again gripped by a dramatic confrontation between its political and religious elites. Recent public attacks by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, are the latest in a series of standoffs since 2018 that reflect a broader struggle between Armenia’s revolutionary present and its entrenched past. This comes a year after Karekin II approved of street protests led by one of his archbishops to force Pashinyan’s resignation. Pashinyan has accused the Catholicos of violating his vow of celibacy and fathering a child. These accusations are not new. They last surfaced in the Armenian media over a decade ago.