Ladies, Pashinyan is not forever. tomorrow you will give the answer. Imprisoned

The wave of Nikol Pashinyan’s attack on the Armenian Apostolic Church also reached the Penitentiary Service. It was under the high patronage of Pashinyan that such a tense situation was created in the relations between the CCP and the church, which has not happened since the establishment of the spiritual service in the CCP and penitentiary institutions.

As in the case of the army, in order to perform spiritual service in places of deprivation of liberty, such conditions were imposed that made it impossible for clergymen to enter prisons and perform their service there.

In this regard 168.am– addressed the Ministry of Justice with a written request, because the contract was signed between the Church and the Ministry of Justice. 

Let’s note that the recent tension between the penal service of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church is taking on new manifestations. The change in the format of the organization of spiritual service in prisons, the signing of individual contracts with the clergy and the closed information field created around the process have raised questions both in church and public circles.

The answer of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RA received after a long time, or rather, the answer prepared by the CSI and addressed to us, or rather, the CSI’s point of view rather avoided our questions than answered the questions.

We tried to get answers to the following questions from the Ministry of Justice:

Has the existing contract between the RA Ministry of Justice and the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church been unilaterally terminated, and has the Mother See been informed about it?

We have not received a direct answer to this question. Instead, they report that the new contracts signed with the priests “do not contradict” the legal provisions defined by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. However, it is not stated whether the previous agreement is valid, has been modified, frozen, or has actually been bypassed.

It can be assumed, for example, that the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia appoints a new head of the National Security Service without taking into account the appointment order of Nikol Pashinyan. he just appoints the head of the CCP of his heart and starts working with him. I wonder how Nikol Pashinyan will react to this. The truth is, the minister will be pushed against the walls. But these people think that in the same situation His Holiness the Pope should silently watch and tolerate the arbitrary illegalities that this government is doing. Thus, one of the most important questions remains unanswered.

There was also no clear answer to the question, whether the head of the CPC is authorized to change or actually reformulate the format of the relationship between the ministry and the church. Instead, the Ministry of Justice simply refers to the legislation and states that the contracts were concluded based on the code, without clarifying whether that decision was made by political, administrative or legal procedure.

The Ministry of Justice confirms that employment contracts were signed with the clergy, without specifying the type of contract. However, important information is also missing here. the amount of remuneration is not presented. It is only mentioned that it depends on the number of serviced institutions and the number of hours. In other words, the cost of the service financed by citizens’ taxes remains secret.

In response to the question of which dioceses are the clerics who have signed a contract with the CCP, and who are they, they only say that 6 contracts have been signed, and 5 clerics have already visited various penitentiary institutions, but the names of the clergy and dioceses are not published. In fact, the public cannot understand on what principle these persons were chosen.

It is noteworthy that the question of whether there were clergymen who refused to sign a contract with the CPC remained completely unanswered. This silence is especially remarkable in the conditions when the relations between the state and the church are being discussed in the CCP and church circles.

The only question that is more or less fully answered is the last one.

CCP–n: reports is, that last the visit performed is 2026 year April 28-ին՝ “Abovian” penitentiary institution.However,

If we analyze it in general, the picture shows that the Ministry of Justice tried to present mainly legal and general wording, avoiding substantive issues.

Meanwhile, we tried to find out whether the state is changing the format of relations with the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church in the penitentiary system, and if so, by whose decision and by what procedure?

And now let’s try to present all this from a different perspective.

It all started on February 3 of this year, when the RA Minister of Justice was presented with the works carried out in 2025. In her concluding speech, in addition to a number of questions, Srbuhi Galyan touched on the spiritual service in prisons, noting that she received information that the priests are engaged in political propaganda in the institutions, naturally, not for the benefit of Nikol Pashinyan, otherwise she would not have addressed that issue. 

The head of the CPC, Tsovinar Tadevosyan, also understood the boss-friend’s “namoyok”, and everything started with Father Grigor Hovhannisyan.

The reason given was that “Nubarashe” made political statements in the Penitentiary, thus violating the terms and objectives of the permit previously granted to enter the Penitentiary, so the permit given to him was terminated, and the Penitentiary began the process.

It is interesting, in the case of Fr. Grigor, if we accept the clarification of the CCP, let’s assume that he was engaged in political propaganda, then why was the entry of priests in other CCPs also prohibited?

Another remarkable circumstance: On March 16, the last spiritual publication was made on the official website of the CPSU. In the “Vardashen” prison, spiritual pastor Ter Arnak priest Harutyunyan held a conversation-discussion with the imprisoned people, dedicated to the Council of Great Fasting and Repentance.

The Ministry of Justice replied that the clergyman last visited the “Abovyan” prison on April 28. There was no such publication on the CCP website. instead, on April 29, weightlifter Nazik Avdalyan visited “Abovyan” CSC accompanied by the head of CSC.

It turned out that a clergyman was also present that day, more precisely, Lord Poghos. The latter is from the diocese of Masyatsotn, the most faithful priest of the former leader of the disorganized diocese, Gevorg Saroyan.

In other words, Arman Saroyan, being disorganized, continues to take millions from the AAP money, and the priest who is loyal to him has also started using the CPC budget.

In fact, all the priests with whom the CCP has signed a contract are definitely from the circle of Tiradavs. I wonder if the head of the National Security Service decided to use their service himself, or was it done at the urging of the minister or, let’s say, Nikol Pashinyan? We are sure that normal, devoted clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church would hardly agree to sign a contract with the CCP.

And one more thing: they signed a contract, why only one of the 6 goes to the prison, why is there no information about the other 5 clergymen, although the Ministry claims that there are 6 clergymen who signed the contract. Or maybe they are afraid to be seen or have concerns about the consequences?:

As for the contract, how will the remuneration be calculated? For example, one visit to the prison is 100 drams, a visitation is 200 drams, and a conversation with a prisoner is 300 drams.

What was once not done at the expense of taxpayers, is done today, and the hands of the priests under the control of the tyrants have also reached the budget of the Republic of Armenia, that is, the pockets of all of us. It turns out that a powerful tax payer also pays for the spiritual needs of imprisoned persons.

And in fact, Reverend Ruben Zargaryan, who has been in charge of spiritual service in penitentiary institutions for about 15 years, is now the vicar of the Diocese of Masyatsotn. press conference during that he mentioned that there were no visits to institutions, barely one or two cases.

And, yes, according to our information, new priests really do not visit institutions, one or two cases have been recorded in all prisons. I wonder if they will be paid, and in general, do they have a fear of meeting imprisoned people, especially if they know inside that their visitors are members of the bandits, and whether the clerics who served on a contractual basis will not preach against the AAP and the person of the Catholicos, we are not sure, based on daily developments, and if such information reaches the ears of Srbuhi Galyan, one day, probably, they will not be banned from entering institutions, but, perhaps, will reward, of course, from the budget of the Central Committee, at the expense of us, the taxpayers.

Let’s wait for the next coverage of the religious event on the official website of the KPK.

And Srbuhi Galyan and her friend Tsovinar Tadevosyan should probably know who they are dealing with, who they are depriving of spiritual care. Tomorrow, people will come out, Pashinyan is not forever, and one day they will surely be asked the same question, even during a protest meeting on the street: why did you deprive people in a narrow place of spiritual service?: I hope the ladies have the answer to that question.

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