Armenia`s first president condemns Armenian authorities` attacks on  AAC

ArmInfo. The first President of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan strongly condemns the encroachment of the Armenian authorities on the 1700-year-old  Armenian Apostolic Church. He stated this during his visit to the  Mother See of Etchmiadzin, where he met with Catholicos of All  Armenians Garegin II.

As reported by the Chancellery of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin,  during the meeting the former President of the Republic of Armenia  expressed full support to His Holiness.

He strongly condemned the unconstitutional encroachment of the  Armenian authorities on the 1700-year- old AAC.

For several days in a row the Armenian authorities have been  attacking the Armenian Apostolic Church and its leader, Catholicos of  All Armenians Garegin II. On the eve, RA Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan once again spoke about the need to "return the Church to  the people" on his Facebook page. 

"The state (government) belongs to the people. The Church belongs to  the people. We have returned the state (government) to the people. We  must also return the Church to the people," the head of the Armenian  government wrote. On May 29, at a government meeting, the prime  minister said that Armenian churches resemble "closets filled with  junk." The next day, he published a harsh post on social media, in  which he used rude language towards the hierarchs of the Armenian  Apostolic Church and accused one of the archbishops of sexual  promiscuity. At the same time, the prime minister demanded that all  priests who violated their vow of celibacy be defrocked. Similar  attacks were made by the prime minister's wife, Anna Hakobyan, who  called the patriarch "the main mafioso" and those who criticized the  "defrocking" of churches "the main pedophiles of the country." These  statements provoked a sharp reaction from the clergy.  In the wake of  the scandal, the prime minister proposed changing the procedure for  electing the head of the AAC so that the state would have a decisive  vote in the elections, and candidates would undergo an ethics check.