The priests serving in Armenian churches in Russia arrived in Armenia on short trips recently. They all were called up for a 25-day military service and banned from leaving the country. Two of them reported for duty on Tuesday.
“As a result of the callups organized unexpectedly and hastily, the priests could not return to their places of service in a timely manner, which disrupted the usual activity of the parishes. Nevertheless, the clergy are ready to fulfill their duty to the Motherland,” read a statement released by the Armenian Apostolic Church’s diocese in Russia.
“We have demonstrated our service to the homeland ever since we set foot to the church,” said Father Arakel Amirian, who runs an Armenian parish in Yaroslavl, a Russian city 280 kilometers northeast of Moscow. “No clergymen of the Armenian Church regard service to the homeland as punishment.”
Amirian linked the unprecedented drafting of priests to Pashinian’s yearlong campaign against the church aimed at deposing its supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II. The primate of his diocese, Archbishop Yezras Nersisian, is a brother of Garegin and vocal critic of Pashinian. The latter branded him a “KGB agent” earlier this year.
The controversial campaign has been accompanied by arrests of four bishops and archbishops and criminal charges brought against several other high-ranking clerics, including the Catholicos himself. In February, more than three dozen chaplains were expelled from Armenia’s armed forces after reportedly refusing to revolt against Garegin. Father Daniel Mkrtchian, who now serves in another Russian city, Perm, is one of those priests.
Mkrtchian arrived in Armenia on May 31 together with his pregnant wife. He was called up by the military after she gave birth to their child this month.
“I served in the armed forces with love for five years and could have served for another 10-15 years,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “If my service is needed now, why did they demobilize me in the first place?”
On the eve of the parliamentary elections, Pashinian’s entourage openly warned Armenian nationals living in Russia -- and men in particular -- not to come to Armenia to cast their ballots. It alleged that they were paid to vote for the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
A deputy chief of Pashinian’s staff warned that such men would be called up as reservists immediately after entering the country. In a clearly related development, military police officers were deployed at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport the day before the vote. Defense Minister Suren Papikian claimed at the time that they are not drafting anyone there.
“There is a procedure for [call-up] notifications, and notifications usually happen in accordance with that procedure,” Papikian told journalists.
However, Amirian, the priest from Yaroslavl, insisted that he received his callup papers and was notified about the travel ban at the airport. Armenian opposition leaders say military policemen have handed the same notifications to scores of other male expats in breach of relevant Armenian laws cited by Papikian. Under those laws, drafting conscripts and reservists is the prerogative of the army’s recruitment centers, rather than the military police.