YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—In an apparent stern rebuke to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Catholicos Karekin II condemned “reprehensible attempts to deny or question” the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in his Easter message to the nation on Sunday.
The supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church expressed serious concern over “continuous unacceptable actions and campaigns within our reality” as he led an Easter Mass at the church’s main cathedral in Echmiadzin which was again boycotted by Armenia’s political leadership.
“In our collective memory, the Armenian Genocide … remains an open wound,” he said. “The unhealed pain of this horrific crime is further intensified by reprehensible attempts to deny or question it, as well as by the occurrence of new genocidal acts around the world. One such manifestation of this crime was the recent atrocity committed against our people: the forceful occupation of Artsakh and the violent displacement of the Armenians of Artsakh from their ancestral land.”
Karekin II did not elaborate on those attempts. He said only that Armenians should reject “words and works that degrade our past, diminish our historical memory, and threaten our future.”
Pashinyan provoked a storm of criticism at home when he essentially questioned the genocide during a visit to Switzerland on January 24. Pashinyan said Armenians should “understand what happened” in 1915 and what prompted the subsequent campaign for international recognition of the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. He seemed to imply that foreign powers, notably the Soviet Union, were behind that campaign.
Armenian historians, opposition figures and retired diplomats expressed outrage at the remarks, saying that Pashinyan cast doubt on the fact of the genocide officially recognized by over three dozen countries, including the United States. Some of them claimed that this is part of his efforts to cozy up to Turkey, which continues to deny a deliberate government effort to exterminate the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian Diaspora groups that have long been at the forefront of the recognition campaign also deplored Pashinyan’s remarks.
Speaking with visiting Turkish journalists last month, Pashinyan made clear that his government will not strive get more countries and international bodies to recognize the genocide. He questioned the wisdom of genocide resolutions already adopted by many foreign parliaments, saying that they undermine stability in the region.
Pashinyan’s relationship with the ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians belong, has increasingly deteriorated in recent years and especially since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Karekin II and other senior clergymen joined the Armenian opposition in calling for Pashinyan’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war.
They also condemned Pashinyan for recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh months before Baku recaptured the region in September 2023. The premier has accused the church of meddling in politics.
