Community Transfers Property to Mother See Under Church Guidance, Lawsuit Filed: Pashinyan

The government has filed a lawsuit regarding a community's decision to transfer a 7th-century church to the Mother See as private property, aiming to return the cultural-historical value to the people. This was announced today, May 22, during a Q&A session in the National Assembly by the Prime Minister of Armenia.

The Prime Minister addressed the issue when a member of the 'Civil Contract' faction, Taguhi Ghazaryan, requested a response on the church's voiced concern that Armenia should return five villages and the Matenadaran to the church and provide compensation.

It is worth noting that Mikhael Ajapahyan, the head of the Shirak Diocese, had earlier made notable statements, saying that if the state wants the church to pay taxes, it must compensate for the damage done to the church.

"I recalled that the Armenian Apostolic Church had raised similar issues in other countries and thought that the attitude towards Armenia and other countries is becoming identical. The church has made such claims against Turkey, and I would not be surprised if the same logic is applied to Armenia, which is quite a telling fact. I want to draw attention to the fact that I previously suggested that the government and the church undertake a joint project because today there are many historical and cultural monuments that are simply collapsing. For some reason, this topic hasn't been of interest to the church, presumably because both governmental and ecclesiastical investments would need to be transparent, which is not always practically possible," stated the Prime Minister.

Regarding the church's demands, he did not consider them serious, emphasizing that such expressions reflect people's trains of thought, but not the realities.

According to the Prime Minister, the government has recently discovered a strange fact: the 7th-century church was recognized by the Armenian Apostolic Church, under its guidance and request, as an illegal structure and transferred as private property to one of the dioceses. A lawsuit has been filed to return the church to the state and the people.