Arshak Surbazan's Participation in Video Confirmed Unrelated by Investigative Committee, Says Arsen Babayan

The lawyer of the Primate of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Arshak Surbazan, Arsen Babayan, wrote on his Facebook page that the Investigative Committee has confirmed that the video attributed to Arshak Surbazan is unrelated to him.

“I just received the conclusion of the forensic examination assigned regarding the video attributed to Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan via email from the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia. In my more than 15 years of public service and three years of practicing law, I have never encountered such absurdity. Therefore, the ‘conclusion’ consists of merely one page, more than half of which is a photograph. This means that the entire conclusion is only half a page long. But this is not all. That ‘conclusion’ entirely refutes the information disclosed by the investigative body to the media, which stated that ‘It has been established that Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan appears in the video.’ This information does not correspond to reality.

Now, let’s see what the expert concluded after comparing the individual depicted in the video and the picture of Arshak Surbazan taken from the internet. Since the shape of the forehead, nasal area, and chin, as well as the hairstyle, coincide, and the fact that both are wearing glasses indicates that the individuals in the photographs are the same person. So what it turns out is that the expert looked at the photos and said, ‘Hey, they look alike.’ Well, when did we say that the person depicted in the forged video does not look at all like Arshak Surbazan? When did we say that the man present in the falsified video has a thick curly hair and a refined, operated nose? Isn’t it clear that anyone shown this video and a picture of Arshak Surbazan would say, ‘Yeah, they look alike’? Is this your examination?

Moreover, the most important thing: although the name of the examination gives the impression that the authenticity of the video should also be investigated, this was not done. In other words, the investigators were not interested in whether the video is real or, for example, created by artificial intelligence. Or could it have been obtained through montage? Based on all this, we can clearly assert that the Investigative Committee confirmed Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan's claim that the content of the video is unrelated to him,” Babayan wrote.

It is also noteworthy that earlier the Investigative Committee had announced that it had confirmed the existence of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan in the videos.