After Armenia’s parliamentary opposition boycotted a government Q&A session with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, he accused both opposition politicians and segments of the clergy of representing ‘external interests’ rather than the Armenian people.
As the session began on Wednesday, Pashinyan noticed the empty seats usually occupied by opposition MPs and quipped, ‘Where are our treasures today?’, to which National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan responded, ‘In the treasury, Mr Prime Minister’.
‘Our opposition colleagues’ seats have been taken by our camera operators’, Simonyan also joked during the session. ‘Anyone with questions can register — I think it would be more useful’.
Opposition lawmakers from the Hayastan bloc, led by Seyran Ohanyan, told RFE/RL that their decision to boycott the session was deliberate but not tied to a specific demand. More than twenty ruling Civil Contract MPs instead took the floor to ask questions, while Pashinyan used much of the two-hour session to go on the offensive.
In particular, Pashinyan moved to extend his criticism to the clergy, targeting senior members of the Armenian Apostolic Church amidst his ongoing confrontation with Catholicos Karekin II.
‘A priest can have a Bentley, three wives, four mistresses, and a child in every country and still not be accountable to anyone — are you crazy?’ he asked rhetorically, accusing the church’s leadership of hypocrisy and moral corruption.
‘The so-called Catholicos, Karekin — does he have a daughter or not? Has he ever answered that question? His brother was a KGB agent — has he ever explained that? Is the sexual pervert the church? Is the thief the church? I will risk my life to free our sanctity from them’.
Pashinyan’s criticism of the church has taken a sharp turn in the past several months, with alleged reports of the breaches of celibacy rules by some high-ranking priests being one of his favourite topics. In late June, Pashinyan offered to show his penis to the head of the Armenian Church, Karekin II, after a priest accused him of being circumcised.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Pashinyan turned the absence of his critics into an opportunity to accuse them of betraying national interests and undermining Armenia’s sovereignty.
‘Why is the opposition absent today? Because all their narratives have collapsed’, he said. ‘They have nothing left to ask’.
He went on to allege that a ‘large and active segment’ of Armenia’s opposition follows agendas dictated from abroad.
‘We possess a great deal of information’, Pashinyan claimed. ‘Much of the opposition’s rhetoric and political planning is being developed outside Armenia. They have no real connection with domestic life — they are merely internal agents of external powers’.
Pashinyan framed Armenia’s internal political divide in stark terms, arguing that the real question facing the country today was whether it remains an independent state or falls back into dependency.
‘Peace is a factor of independence, while conflict is a factor of dependence’, he declared.
‘Some political forces — or rather, foreign forces operating in the domestic arena — are dissatisfied because Armenia has already overcome the stage where its independence was being constrained. They want to pull us back’.
Pashinyan further claimed that his government’s foreign policy and peace agenda were designed to secure the country’s sovereignty rather than compromise it. He also rejected frequent opposition accusations that his administration was following the orders of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
‘They say we act on the orders of others, but that’s nonsense’, Pashinyan said. ‘We are doing exactly what our people want — in the literal sense’.
He reminded MPs that despite widespread discontent following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the ruling Civil Contract party was re-elected in 2021 with a strong mandate.
‘When the opposition was staging revolutions every week after the war, it was the people who spoke and gave us their trust again’, Pashinyan said. ‘That’s why we are doing what our people want, not what others dictate’.
Pashinyan’s remarks came amidst rising criticism of his government’s decision to shorten mandatory military service from two years to one and a half starting in January 2026 — a reform that some argue is politically motivated ahead of that year’s parliamentary elections. While Defence Minister Suren Papikyan insisted that the reform was long planned and part of a gradual professionalisation of the army, opposition figures have accused the government of risking Armenia’s security for short-term popularity.
As Pashinyan wrapped up his remarks, he reiterated that the government’s direction — from military reform to peace negotiations — reflects a single goal: consolidating Armenia’s independence.
‘The final word, as always, belongs to the people’, he said.
‘And I am convinced the people cannot act against their own interests’.
OC Media
