By Paul Vartan Sookiasian
A second senior clergyman of the Armenian Apostolic Church has started a march to Yerevan in opposition to a controversial border delimitation deal with Azerbaijan. Protesters led by Mikael Adjapahyan, Archbishop of the northwestern Shirak region, left Gyumri today with plans to join Archbishop of Tavush Bagrat Galstanyan’s march as it approaches Yerevan. The Diocese of Artsakh, led by Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, has also encouraged its followers to join the marches.
Upon reaching Yerevan, the protesters will rally at four in the afternoon in the city’s central Republic Square. Meanwhile, the border delimitation process they are demanding be stopped appears to be partially on hold. The mayor of Kirants, a border village in Armenia’s northeastern Tavush region that has emerged as a major flashpoint over the border delimitation controversy, told reporters yesterday officials had abruptly stopped delimitation work and riot police deployed to the area last week had left. There was no immediate explanation from the government on these latest developments.
In a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters that 90% of the delimitation work agreed to last month with Azerbaijan on the portions of the border in Tavush has already been completed. He added that officials have now reached the “sensitive points” around Kirants at the heart of the residents’ concerns, including the bridge leading to the village and some private homes that may be lost in the process. He did not elaborate further.
For the protesters, the delimitation process is invalid and as Galstanyan emphasized to CivilNet on Monday, “it is not just an issue for small villages in Tavush, but for the entire country.” They point to the strongly-fortified defenses along the border there which are being compromised by the delimitation, and that only Armenia is giving up territory in the deal though Azerbaijan still occupies large swaths of Armenian land.
Officials from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party have been very critical of the church and its apparent role in the growing protest movement. During yesterday’s press conference, Pashinyan accused the protesters, who he claimed are under the influence of “drug lords,” “criminals,” and “foreign special services,” of seeking to “incite war” and the “de facto dissolution of Armenian sovereignty and statehood.” The prime minister, who has long been at odds with the Armenian church’s leadership, did not provide any evidence to back up those inflammatory claims. Pashinyan also accused the head of the church Catholicos Garegin II of seeking to lead a political movement, and said the aim was to return former President Robert Kocharyan to power.
For its part, the church’s Supreme Spiritual Council issued a statement yesterday condemning the government for its decision to unilaterally hand over territories, calling it “very dangerous,” and stressing that delimitation should only be carried out only with guarantees against war and for the safety of border communities, along with the return of Armenian territories occupied by Azerbaijan. The council noted the church has no political ambitions, but remains committed to protecting the identity and rights of the Armenian people.
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