Chairman of the Bright Armenia party and former ambassador-at-large Edmon Marukyan stated via his Telegram channel that Armenia faces grave issues and challenges, yet “we are once again preoccupied with absurdities.”

He recalled that in 2019 and 2020, the intellectual capacity of political, social, academic, media, activist, and even military circles was fixated on a single topic—pushed by the authorities—which flooded the public discourse and obstructed essential debates. That topic was the Constitutional Court crisis.

“To put it bluntly, it was an absurdity that we all went through,” Marukyan wrote.

“Today, the entire public mindset in the Republic of Armenia is focused on the Armenian Apostolic Church, the sexual lives and bedrooms of clerics, celibacy, and internal church matters. Everyone—from the top official to the last citizen—is preoccupied with it.”

He warned that the misdirection of intellectual resources in 2019–20 ultimately led Armenia to war—a devastating conflict from which the country is still suffering heavy consequences.

“We again face extremely serious problems and challenges today, yet we are once more caught up in nonsense. We need to wake up and stop this process as soon as possible—what we’re seeing resembles the countdown before an explosion,” he concluded.

Editor’s note: Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently responded to clerics’ criticism—sparked by his remarks likening churches to “storerooms” during a cabinet session—with offensive posts on Facebook. He and his wife, Anna Hakobyan, have used derogatory language against clerics. Pashinyan has stated that the state should play a central role in electing the Catholicos of All Armenians. He also questioned Catholicos Garegin II’s adherence to celibacy.