DECLARATION
On the Armenian Church

The Armenian Church is one of the key traditional pillars of Armenian identity. Historically, this religious institute has had a wide range of responsibilities in ensuring the spiritual, moral and psychological security of global Armeniancy. Since the 1990s, due to formation of a feudal system with its own way of life in modern Armenia, and due to total disorganisation within Armenian communities around the world and inclusion of a significant part of community leaders into this feudal system, the Armenian Church has largely neglected its historic mission and has become one of the instruments in the hands of different feudal groups. In this regard, the Armenian Republic is convinced that:

• A meaningful and functioning Armenian Church can exist and serve only within the framework of a sovereign, purposeful Armenian statehood, which can materialise only if an Armenian national aristocracy is established.

• The colonisation of Armenia by the Turkish collaborationist regime in the spring of 2018 became possible due to formation and entrenchment of the feudal clan system in the country, which undermined the remnants of state and nationwide immunity.

• Lack of timely response (no diagnosis and no subsequent treatment) has led to an aggravation of our national immunodeficiency and, as a consequence, to our inability to resist internal and external threats.

• As a result of a systemically progressing disease, Artsakh was surrendered, 150,000 Armenians of Artsakh were forcibly deported from their lands, strategically important territories of Armenia have been occupied, the power mandate of the collaborationist regime was renewed (following the 2021 ‘elections’), the methodical and consistent destruction of key elements of Armenian identity continued: the concept of Greater Armenia, liberated Artsakh, historical heritage, the memory of the Genocide and occupied Western Armenia, the Armenian Church.

• The Armenian Church, which became part of the feudal clan system in the 1990s, was unable to stop the colonisation of the country at a time of crisis and to develop mechanisms to overcome the artificial split within Armenia and among Armenian communities. It also failed to do anything against the feudal lords, who methodically eradicated the country’s immunity, or against the Turkish collaborationist regime that replaced those feudal lords in 2018. And, most importantly, it failed to become an institution that would launch the process of rebooting the Armenian world and lead the nationwide battle for the decolonisation of the country and its recovery.

As a result, the Armenian Church is not being perceived as a spiritual and moral authority for the majority of Armenians, and its position on various political issues does not inspire due confidence. Otherwise, we would have already witnessed a massive resistance movement that would have overnight wiped out Pashinyan’s collaborationist regime.

In this regard, the Armenian Republic urges not to equate the ancient and sacred Armenian Church, which played a historic role in the physical and spiritual survival of the Armenian people, with some representatives of the leadership within the Church itself, who are part of the feudal clan system. The governance can always be changed, but to restore such an ancient institution (if it is destroyed) can take centuries. We cannot afford the luxury of allowing this to happen.

Nikol Pashinyan does not seek to reform the Armenian Church – his task, as a protege of the Turkish metropolis, is to destroy the very institution of the Armenian Church as one of the key elements of Armenian identity. We cannot be deluded – the goal of Pashinyan and his young Janissaries is to destroy the Armenianness as the basis of the unique Armenian civilisation, which was born, grew and strengthened in the Armenian Highlands.

Building a global Armenian national aristocracy and meaningful statehood will automatically lead to the purification, reform, and modernisation of the Armenian Church, restoring its status as the spiritual protector and moral authority of the future Armenian nation.

As the rightful architect of national interests and the only legitimate representative of the Armenian nation, only the Armenian national aristocracy has the authority to develop, reform and modernise the foundations of Armenian identity, including such an important institution as the Armenian Church.