During the June 19 parliamentary session, MP Eduard Aghajanyan from the ruling “Civil Contract” faction stated that the Church should be fully incorporated into the tax system and that “any entrepreneurial activity must be taxed exactly like any other enterprise.”
According to Aghajanyan, once church taxation is implemented, two models can be considered:
- The government returns the collected taxes to the Church as donations, but earmarked for specific programs and under state oversight.
- The government retains the funds, and the Church must apply for financial support for designated programs. The state would assess the program’s merits and decide whether to allocate funds.
“It’s only logical to allow the government this discretion. After all, maybe the state doesn’t want to buy a G-Class Mercedes for Archbishop Arshak,” Aghajanyan said.
He concluded by addressing sincere clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church: “The Church is not the group that has desecrated it for years. The Church is you. You must clearly state your position. I urge you to no longer tolerate this and to return the Church to the people, and to God.”
Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan later emphasized during an emergency session that “no one in Armenia has an issue with the Church or with faith.” He said the discussion is about long-needed fundamental reforms.
“There are many decent people in the Church, but they are now in captivity. Some exploit their position to present this as a fight against the Church. It’s not. The Armenian Apostolic Church is ours, and there’s no doubt about that,” Simonyan stressed.
He also responded to opposition MP Artsvik Minasyan’s speech, calling for clarity on what national values truly mean. “Our ideal is a free and independent Republic of Armenia. Mr. Minasyan’s vision reflects a corrupt, feudal past wrapped in the ideology of a broader union,” he said.
Simonyan noted the irony of non-Apostolic voices supporting the Church in this debate, remarking, “In other countries, like Russia, you can’t say these things, but in Armenia, you can. That’s democracy.”
He also addressed MP Gegham Manukyan’s remarks on the army, recalling the hardship of his own service and criticizing Armenia’s former leaders, including ex-presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan, and ex-defense chief Seyran Ohanyan.
Simonyan concluded by urging opposition MPs Levon Kocharyan and Ishkhan Saghatelyan to return to the chamber: “Nothing’s going to happen to them. Come back—it’s shameful for sessions to end like this.”
Separately, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook that decisive steps must be taken to “liberate the Catholicosate of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin” and organize new elections for the Catholicos. He proposed forming a Coordinating Group to manage this process and said he would personally select its first 10 members.
