Karekin II: Holiness or Blasphemy?
Posted on January. 7. 2024
First of all, let me make it clear that the author of this article is neither pro-government nor pro-treacherous old kleptocratic presidents. Like millions of Armenians and non-Armenian friends of Armenia around the world, this author is in solidarity with the Sovereignty and Defense of the Armenian state.
Now let’s move on to the subject.
According to Roman Baghdasarian, a well-known commentator, investigative reporter and blogger, on December 31, “Karekin II gave an ultimatum to TV channels that his speech must be broadcast at 12 o’clock, otherwise it should not be broadcast. Naturally, this ultimatum has antagonized many people. Therefore, many TV channel directors had no choice but not to broadcast the video message of Karekin II.”
In the last few days, a number of old regime cronies, obsessed with creating a storm in a cup of water, tried to inundate the Internet with false accusations against the Pashinyan government by pointing their spears at the current authorities. One wonders, what convinced them that the Homeland and Diaspora Armenian masses would find credible their baseless accusations and unconvincing “condemnations?”
USA ARMENIAN LIFE is aware that Karekin II suffers from exponential disapproval rating among wide circles of Armenians in the Homeland and the Diaspora. Overwhelming majority of Armenian Apostolic Faithful do not accept the legitimacy of Karekin II, who is seen as a usurper of the Throne of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin. Many Homeland and Diaspora Armenians demand his resignation. “When he gets dethroned, he will become the 16th disgraced pontiff in Christian Armenia’s seventeen century-old Christianity” a high-ranking Armenian spiritual leader stated to USA Armenian Life. Armenia is the first nation that adopted Christianity in 301 A.D. Many will call him “profane and a traitor” and classify his “false message” as “blasphemy”.
Directing the speech to the directorate of H1, a crony of Karekin II, the director of the Museums and Archives of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, so-called ‘Priest’ Asoghik Karapetyan wrote, “You are wreaking havoc in the life of Christian Armenia.”
Doesn’t ‘Priest’ Asoghik know that for more than two decades, the ‘illegitimate’ Catholicos Karekin II has been wreaking havoc in the life of Christian Armenia, in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the life of the Armenian nation? Then who was the individual who received a medal from Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “services” to Russia on or about September 19, 2023, around the same time as the depopulation of Artsakh? For which services did Russia’s Putin give him a medal?
How can one justify the attitude of the old kleptocrats in support of Karekin II? Isn’t the defense of the Soviet-Ottoman KGB agent Karekin II also an act of treason?
Apparently, the misguided “struggle” of those elements who are power-hungry has caused by them disorientation.
But fortunately, widest circles of the Homeland and Diaspora Armenians approach today’s reality with common sense. Even if they are not so satisfied with the current government, they categorically reject the old dictatorial kleptocratic presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, under whom both Armenia- Artsakh and the Diaspora were looted. Didn’t their administrations rob Armenia- Artsakh’s defence budget, and wasn’t it with their complicity that internal traitors stabbed Armenia-Artsakh in the back during the 44-day anti-Armenian terrorist aggression by Azerbaijan-Turkey-ISIS in the fall of 2020?