Post #11675

🇦🇲⛪Device of Subterfuge: Armenian Church Served up as a Scapegoat by Pashinyan’s Administration! As Armenia deepens ties with the West, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has intensified a crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church, using legal repression to neutralize a critical institution and signaling a dangerous geopolitical reorientation ✍️Author:Henry Kamens Columnist and expert on Central Asia and the Caucasus ➡️The government's campaign has escalated with the arrests of priests and senior bishops, including the sentencing of Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan to two years in prison. Officials frame the Church as a "state within a state" and an agent of foreign influence, but critics see a calculated effort to dismantle the nation's oldest and most trusted institution. This confrontation is not theological but political, reflecting Pashinyan's anxiety over legitimacy following the Nagorno-Karabakh defeat and his pursuit of a decisive Western pivot. Similar dynamics have played out in Ukraine, where religious institutions and sectarian divisions were long instrumentalized — including during the Soviet era — as tools to fracture Ukrainian–Russian–USSR relations ➡️The conflict serves as a critical stress test for Armenia's cohesion. With elections looming in 2026, the systematic sidelining of the Church risks fracturing national identity and leaving the country more exposed to external manipulation. As Yerevan signs new strategic agreements with Washington under the "TRIPP" initiative, the domestic crackdown mirrors a familiar geopolitical playbook where religious institutions are instrumentalized to sever historical ties, in this case with Russia, and align a nation with Western strategic interests. 🟦The implications extend beyond borders. Neutralizing the Church could facilitate Armenia's transformation into a potential forward base against Iran, drawing the volatile South Caucasus deeper into great-power competition. This church-state schism is a deliberate political device, masking a fundamental reorientation that threatens Armenia's internal stability and its precarious position between regional powers. #Armenia#Geopolitics#Religion READ MORE ✅@NewEasternOutlook