The Armenian Church: The Story of the Fall

In the early 2010s, the Milwaukee diocese of the Catholic Church of the USA was at the center of a scandal. According to American media, in 2011, the diocese of Milwaukee was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the need to pay compensation to victims of sexual harassment and pedophilia. In 2002 alone, these payments totaled $2 billion.

In 2010, church-related sexual scandals broke out in Germany. About 500 former students of the elite Berlin school "St. Canisius College", run by the Jesuit Order, have written to the college administration asking them to make public the facts of sexual abuse of students, widespread here in the 70s and 80s of the last century. The church paid the victims of perverts 150 million euros in compensation, which was actually a ruin for the community.

And how much did the Armenian church pay the victims of violence and perversions that took place within the "sacred" walls? Not at all. In a society where the dictate of the Armenian Apostolic Church exists, there can be no question of condemning, much less punishing, churchmen. The AAC is not subject to jurisdiction and is inviolable. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is trying to rid the Armenian society of this dictate, but will he succeed? Big question.

The problem is that the Armenian Church is a nation-forming element. The Armenian ethnic group has formed around the church and maintains unity thanks to it. Therefore, many fear that by eliminating the influence of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Pashinyan will actually destroy the integrity of the Armenian ethnic group. However, these concerns seem to be too exaggerated, and the main role in these exaggerations was played by Etchmiadzin himself.

The scandal between the prime minister and Etchmiadzin began with the fact that the pop fraud Galstanyan, posing as the leader of the opposition, spoke out about the relationship between Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan, who, as it turned out, were not only not married, but also not registered at the registry office. Why, having a strong and large family, these two did not legitimize the relationship is not very clear. But that's their own business. Pashinyan thinks so too, so he did not let Zrbazan down, but went on the attack on the "infallibility" of the church. There was no need to inflame him too much, since the current prime minister and Etchmiadzin are long-time enemies. As soon as Pashinyan assumed the post of prime minister, he began to fight for the liberation of society from the dictates of the church and its subordination to the interests of the state. Garegin, pretending that he was above squabbling with secular authorities, started playing underhanded games.  He did not dare to openly speak out against the prime minister, who had the majority on his side, but began to act using traditional methods for the Armenian Orthodox Church. For a while, the "skirmishes" stopped, until Zrbazan, perplexed, touched the family of the Prime Minister.

And off it went.

At first, it was about the church as a whole, and then Pashinyan switched to the Catholicos of all Armenians personally. A particularly strong outburst of curses on the prime minister's head followed his words about Garegin II's violation of the vow of celibacy. "Garegin II violated his voluntary vow of celibacy, and he has a child. This is a fact, and if Garegin II tries to deny everything, I will prove it in the necessary format," Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page, calling on society to "unite around the agenda of liberating the Patriarchate with love and a Christian image and electing a truly sacred clergyman as Catholicos of all Armenians."

According to Pashinyan, as having violated this vow, Garegin could not be a bishop, archbishop and Catholicos, and therefore "Ktrich Nersisyan should vacate the patriarchal chambers." Ktrich Nersesyan is Garegin's name in the world.

Let's turn to the rules that exist in the AAC. As you can learn from the Armenian media, the Armenian clergy is divided into two categories: the regular (black) clergy, for whom celibacy is mandatory, and the secular (white) clergy, who marry. The latter consists exclusively of married people and fathers of the family living in the world. Marriage is a prerequisite prior to their ordination as deacons. Having become widowed, deacons and priests, if they wish to remarry, that is, the Armenian Church forbids those who are clothed with the dignity of a priest to marry. Those who violate this rule are deprived of the priesthood.

Catholicos Garegin belongs to the black clergy. In general, the definition of "black" is very suitable for this figure. And now, when bales of the Armenian Apostolic Church's dirty laundry are thrown out every day, even the "white" clergy have turned gray.

Accusing Catholicos Garegin of violating his vow of celibacy, Nikol Pashinyan blamed the entire shadow system created by the Armenian Apostolic Church. The corridors of this system are always dark and there is no access to anyone from outside. Only the "chosen ones", that is, those who participate in outrages, know what is happening within the walls of a church saturated with hatred and a couple of perversions. Sometimes facts leak out that make society shudder. And this has been going on throughout almost the entire history of the AAC. The only difference is that if earlier it was taboo for Armenians to talk about the fall of the churchmen, today people look at many things differently. Times have changed. 

"The main pedophiles of the country were horrified by the word "closet." And this is understandable, it could not be otherwise, because it is in the closets that the dark sides of the lives of people in monastic cassocks are located. It is in the closets that perversions occur, which no longer become a reason for believers to protest, because the people have long since resigned themselves, and are dragging the main insane perverts of the country on their shoulders." Anna Hakobyan made such a post on social networks, responding to the churchmen who attacked Nikol Pashinyan after his words about the "humanization" of the church. These were not just words thrown in the face of the churchmen on emotion. There are serious facts behind Hakobyan's words.

The attack on the AAC did not begin today, Zrbazan only became a catalyst for the intensification of the process.

Back in February, the Armenian media recalled last year's shocking scandal involving teenagers aged 12-14. These boys spent the day begging or selling flowers at St. Grigor Lusavorich Church in Yerevan. And at night they provided sexual services, and often they were taken away for several hours by priests. But not to pet and feed. Parishioners who noticed this complained to the police several times, but the police just threw up their hands. The police admitted that they were forbidden to approach these children, who, it turns out, were "under the protection" of the church, and law enforcement officers did not interfere in church affairs. The details told by the anonymous policeman are horrifying both by the degree of the fall of the churchmen and by the cynicism of the law enforcement officer himself. He told a media reporter that boys start begging at the church at the age of 5-8, and then move on to another "job." Their "services" are much cheaper (only 300 drams) than the services of female prostitutes, which is why they are popular with priests.

The priests of Grigor Lusavorich's church themselves denied all the accusations and stated that they only "take care of their (children's) soul and guide them on the right path." But no one believed it, of course.

The Armenian Diocese in Jerusalem has been particularly successful in sexual scandals. The scandals that followed one another a few years ago still affect her reputation. It should be recalled that in 2016, Father Had Jundourian, accused of raping a former pupil of the Armenian Theological Seminary in Jerusalem, Hrayr Ezekelian, was removed from the post of inspector of the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem. This happened after a short documentary "Demons of the Past" was broadcast on Israeli TV, telling about the outrages being committed in the diocese. In the film, 38-year-old Lebanese native Hrayr Ezekelian claimed that in his youth, as a student at the seminary, he was sexually assaulted by three Armenian clergy. He mentioned the names of Father Hada Djundourian, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Demetrios Atarian, and Archbishop David Sahakyan, who had lived in France in recent years and had already passed away. According to French media, in 2013, a complaint was received against the archbishop: he was accused of sexual harassment and rape committed in 1990 in an Armenian monastery in Jerusalem. The victim was 13 years old at the time. The case was sent to court in 2016, but Sahakyan managed to make ends meet. Why the victim waited so many years is not reported.

There have been many similar scandals in the Armenian Church in the modern era, which is accessible to the media. And many believe that there are even more such dirty spots on the dark underside of Etchmiadzin's life, hidden from view.

According to the Armenian media, a few days ago Nikol Pashinyan instructed the security forces to compile a list of about 50 clergymen in order to collect information about them. The authorities have reportedly collected dirt on Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and his entourage, which can be used to remove the patriarch from the church. This is regarded by many as sacrilege, but in fact the prime minister wants to help the flock of the Armenian Apostolic Church find a voice and start thinking with their own heads. Because now this mass does not even think according to the instructions from the holy scriptures, but according to the rules established by the dictate of the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

"The Armenian Apostolic Church today belongs entirely to Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and his brother, Primate of the Moscow Diocese Ezras," Father Sahak, director of the Mankavarj International Foundation ("Educator") and a former minister of the Armenian Apostolic Church, told Armenian journalists earlier. According to him, the church, instead of pursuing its mission, is engaged in business, money laundering and trafficking. Garegin and his brother "do whatever comes into their heads, no one can say a word...The two of them completely control the church, criminal laws are in force in the church, the church is no different from this world," said Father Sahak.

Let's recall the story that the Armenian media shared six years ago. The leaders of Armenian public organizations in Siberia, the Volga region and the Urals accused the Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of raiding, greed, authoritarian management style and attempts to discredit the Diaspora. The local community built a church in Izhevsk and turned to the very Archbishop Erzas (in the world Mkrtych) with a request to illuminate it and send a priest. In exchange for these "services," the brother of the Catholicos of All Armenians demanded that the ownership of the church and the entire surrounding territory be re-registered to the diocese and that a charter be adopted transferring all power to the rector appointed from Moscow, as well as all income be transferred to him and 1.2 million rubles transferred to the diocese's "stabilization fund." At the same time, the media began to write that Ezras leads a riotous life, debauchery, is engaged in business and earns millions from naive parishioners.

There are many high-profile scandals and shameful stories associated with the name of Ezras. Earlier, egregious facts were revealed that should have cost Archbishop Nersesyan his dignity, but for some reason they were not worth it. It all started when Facebook user Artsruni Avetisyan shared on his page the story of an Argentinean of Armenian origin named Mikael (Marcello). The boy was orphaned after a car accident that killed his parents, and was sent to the Etchmiadzin Theological Seminary. There he was sexually assaulted by Nersisyan, who was studying at the Gevorgyan Theological Seminary at the time. The publication of this story led to a big scandal in Armenia, and investigations by journalists showed that it could be true - it was confirmed by a number of seminary graduates who studied with the future archbishop. It was reported that the current Archbishop Ezras not only raped the boy himself, but also brought drug addicts to him for money...

The Armenian church is too dirty. We understand that for our neighbors, propaganda by the Armenian Apostolic Church under the guise of "saving identity" of terrorism and racism is not a crime. Therefore, we suggest that the flock of the "most Christian" church pay attention to all of the above. Pashinyan, fighting against Etchmiadzin, saves the Armenians, and only then his own power. As long as the criminal church forms an "identity," Armenian society does not have to think about the future.