Hovsep Der Kevorkian, a member of the World Bureau of the ARF Dashnaktsoutyun, is one of the guests on the programme “Cartes sur table” on 14 June 2025, presented by Mariette Gharapetian, which deals with current affairs in Armenia and the various attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church by both Prime Minister Nikol Pashynyan and Azerbaijan.
A campaign that started in 2018 as soon as Nikol Pashinyan became Prime Minister
According to Der Kevorkian, the attacks on the Church are neither accidental nor incidental. The slogan ‘New Armenia, New Catholicos’ was not merely the expression of revolutionary euphoria. It was a deliberate programme. And that programme began the moment Nikol Pashinyan came to power.
“With this slogan he tried to destabilise and weaken the Church in various ways, but without success. Why? First of all, we must say that this is indeed a tragedy, because today we are experiencing the most serious days for the Fatherland and for Syunik, and the most important days. We know what is happening in Iran, we know what impact all this can have on Syunik, and it is not surprising because we have learnt that a few weeks ago, a few days ago, the United States of America gave the terms of an ultimatum to Iran and that this ultimatum has ended. While we, on the other hand, last week, instead of uniting and confronting these dangers, we – Armenia as a state, as a nation – waited every day until 8.30 in the morning to see what madness, what vulgar post our Prime Minister would write. So the goal is clear, the goal is very clear,” he stated bluntly.
The political leader speaks of an organised process: Pashinyan first tried to discredit the ecclesiastical hierarchy by systematically associating it with the old regime. This is no coincidence. It’s a strategy.
A Campaign Waged From Both Inside and Outside
What’s more, Hovsep Der Kevorkian mentions a disturbing convergence of attacks from both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Sheikh Pashazadeh, a religious authority in Baku, took the liberty of directly insulting His Holiness Karekin II. At almost the same time, Anna Hakobyan, wife of the Prime Minister, criticised the Catholicos in the press. It’s an orchestration.
“But we can go even further, because Nikol Pashinyan wants to change the mentality, the essence of Armenians, the values of Armenian society. For him there is nothing sacred, there are no national values. Nikol Pashinyan wants to tear the Church and Armenians away from their past, he wants to turn them into obedient, submissive structures and people, he wants to prepare us by facilitating the implementation of the Turkisation programme, and then we will no longer have any opposition, nothing, we will no longer oppose this programme.”
The tone becomes even more serious:
“These attempts, I must also say, have been happening throughout this year, they have also been happening throughout our history, even from Vardanants. In their time, so did the Tsarist authorities.”
Der Kevorkian goes further, describing it as a foreign construct:
“This is not an Armenian idea. It is a policy of cultural annihilation imported from outside. It is a Turkish concept being implemented by Armenian hands.”
A State-Backed Programme of National De-Armenianisation
According to Der Kevorkian, the discrediting of the Church is part of a broader, insidious plan:
“The goal is to build an Armenia without memory, without values, without a spine. To reduce the Armenian people to a crowd without ideological substance — pliable and ready for remoulding to suit the new regional order.”
He warns of the consequences of such spiritual erosion:
“What we are witnessing is an attempt to disarm the people not just militarily, but spiritually, culturally, morally. The Church is the last bastion standing in the way of this project. That is why it is under attack.”
Vulnerability on All Fronts: Domestic and Foreign
The ARF representative links this internal disintegration with growing external threats:
“An Israeli military base is being built in the Berdzor area. Syunik is under threat. Should Iran destabilise, Armenia becomes fully exposed. Yet Yerevan remains silent. No meeting of the National Security Council. The state is indifferent.”
He raises the spectre of a wider regional conflict:
“If war breaks out between Israel and Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan will seize the opportunity to attack Armenia. Our army is already fragmented. Our allies are uncertain. And yet we are told we must renounce our rights in the name of peace. But this is no peace. It is capitulation.”
Full Support for the Catholicos and the Church
Der Kevorkian reaffirms his party’s unwavering support for the Church and for His Holiness Karekin II:
“The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsoutioun cannot remain silent, and we must first clarify this point. Because today, there are many who will try to hide behind their own fingers and do not wish to express a clear position. The ARF Dashnaktsoutioun, with its family, with its structures, cannot accept such attempts, such attacks. And throughout history, as I said a moment ago, just as at the time of the tsarist authorities when the tsarist authorities were trying to seize the property of the Armenian Church, the ARF Dashnaktsoutioun, with the leadership of the ARF Dashnaktsoutioun, even at the highest level, including Rostom, with all its organisation, its structure, therefore, with all its capacity, the ARF Dashnaktsoutioun worked to foil this plan.”
He recalls the Catholicos’s recent return from the UAE:
“He was greeted at the airport by hundreds of faithful. Despite the insults, despite the campaign, faith endures. That rooted community is our greatest hope. That people must be defended.”
“A State Without an Ideology Is Doomed”
Der Kevorkian concludes with a sober warning:
“We need a functioning state — with a national army, sovereign diplomacy, an independent economy. But none of that is possible without a foundation. A state must have an ideology. Armenia must have an idea.”
He sharply criticises the government’s appeasement strategy:
“They tell us: forget Artsakh, accept the Genocide, abandon the Church — and you’ll live in peace. But that is not peace. That is the abyss.”
He closes with a stark message:
“A people that forgets its faith and its memory has no future. History is merciless to those who choose comfort over principle.”
Hovsep Der Kevorkian’s interview sheds light on the deep rifts running through Armenian society. Through the figure of the Church, a whole section of national identity is called into question. In a country still scarred by the war of 2020, the temptation to break with the past is strong. But for some, this break could prove fatal.
Far from being a simple clerical quarrel, the debate surrounding the Church raises some of the most fundamental questions: what does it mean to be Armenian today? Can the state be rebuilt without its spiritual and historical foundations? And how far can we go in making concessions without dissolving ourselves?
Main source: aypfm.com