«Hraparak». «The Catholicos Remains Impartial»

«Hraparak» newspaper reports: The Supreme Spiritual Council will meet with the country’s top officials today, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, after holding sessions for two consecutive days. On Saturday, they will meet with President Armen Sarkissian.

It should be noted that from the very first day as a minister, Araik Harutyunyan had announced that the subject of “History of the Church” should be removed from the school curriculum. However, after facing public backlash, the issue was temporarily set aside. Now, the Ministry of Education has decided that this subject will be removed from the school curricula and included in the history program of Armenia.

Was the topic of the government's approach to the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church discussed during the two-day meetings of the spiritual council? “No, the question about this was not discussed during the sessions of the spiritual council. We decided to address it to Pashinyan and Mirzoyan today, asking why and how such a thing is possible. However, we might not even ask and ignore their responses, because there is a firm stance within the council that this issue must be raised unequivocally, without listening to their opinions, that it is enough and everyone is against it, and such a step is unacceptable and anti-apostolic. Although there are also other perspectives within the council, there are conformists who believe that it might be acceptable that way,” said our source from the spiritual council.

Are they among the laymen or the clergy? “They are laymen who have maintained close ties with the authorities of the Armenian National Movement.” And what about the Catholicos? “The Catholicos remains impartial.”

Details are in today’s edition of the newspaper.