“We will never take such a step under pressure,” he told a news conference organized for several media outlets. “We have vowed and will remain true to our vow to defend the rights of our church. We will not allow a wrong precedent which could be destructive for our church and our nation with its consequences.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party has added a pledge to oust Garegin to its campaign manifesto for the Armenian parliamentary elections slated for June 7. The church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin has condemned the “unlawful” move. Armenian opposition leaders and other government critics likewise view it as another violation by Pashinian of a constitutional provision guaranteeing the independence of the ancient church.
Pashinian began pressuring Garegin to resign in June last year shortly after the Catholicos accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and illegally occupying Armenian border areas during an international conference in Switzerland. Three Armenian archbishops and one bishop were arrested in the following months on different charges strongly denied by them. Three of them were moved to house arrest early this year.
Around the same time, a law-enforcement agency indicted six other bishops and Garegin himself but refrained from arresting them. The accusations levelled against them stem from Garegin’s January 27 decision to defrock another bishop, who is involved in Pashinian’s controversial campaign.
Garegin said on Tuesday that he would not bow to the government pressure and would fight for justice will “all possible means” in case of his arrest.
“If we fail, as was the case with our other clergy, we are also ready to bear that unjust punishment and decision with that commitment,” he said. “But our position will not change. We will remain faithful to our sacred vow, our service, our nation and homeland, faithful to the defense of the church’s autonomy.”
Pashinian has used different lines of attack on the church during his nearly yearlong campaign. He said until December that Garegin and other top clerics at odds with him must go because they had secret sex affairs in breach of their vows of celibacy. He then began accusing them of meddling in politics and spying for a foreign country, presumably Russia.
In a weekend statement, the Catholicos urged all Armenians to vote in the upcoming elections “so that the law, justice and truth, love and solidarity, and mutual respect prevail and human rights and dignity are respected in our country.” He did not endorse any of the parties or blocs running in the polls. Analysts believe that a high voter turnout would bode ill for Pashinian’s reelection.