National resilience has eroded, control over Artsakh is lost and 150,000 displaced, says Ambassador Apitonian, pointing to a propaganda campaign targeting the Apostolic Church’s role in national identity.

Ambassador Artak Apitonian highlighted during a discussion on the Armenian Apostolic Church, state‑building, and foreign policy that “the shield of national resistance has been destroyed, we lost control over Artsakh, 150,000 citizens have been forcibly displaced, and now there is a campaign against the bastion of Armenian consciousness — the Apostolic Church.”

He warned about diverse techniques and “degrading rhetoric” borrowed from Bolshevik propaganda, stating there's an “attempt to present the Church as an anti‑state institution, using known elements of Bolshevik propaganda machinery, with distorted references to various historical events. Dozens of examples where the Church not only rallied the nation in absence of statehood but led state‑restoring movements have been forgotten.”

In addition, Apitonian noted that even during the Artsakh liberation struggle, the Church took on a coordinating role by directing Diaspora support toward the front lines.