Tatev Hayrapetyan: Pashinyan and Pashazade “Pass the Ball” – A Game Against the Armenian Apostolic Church
Expert in Azerbaijan, PhD in History, Tatev Hayrapetyan, writes:
“The infamous photo illustrating how Pashinyan and Pashazade echo the same rhetoric against the Armenian Apostolic Church has made its way into Azerbaijani circles. In this context, one Azerbaijani political analyst commented: ‘Knowing that anti-Turkish sentiment dominates public opinion in Armenia, opposition figures sometimes call Pashinyan an Azerbaijani agent. Now, by pointing to similar statements from Karekin II and Allahshukur Pashazade about the Armenian Apostolic Church, they are trying to convince the public that Pashazade and Pashinyan share the same stance.’”
“Pashazade and Pashinyan are openly passing the ball back and forth in their attacks against the Armenian Apostolic Church. The talking points coming out of Baku are so closely aligned with those voiced by Pashinyan that I could easily create an entire photo album on the subject. For now, I’m only sharing a small portion of it...”
The following photos from Tatev Hayrapetyan’s page highlight Nikol Pashinyan’s complete alignment with the Azerbaijani leadership’s stance.
May 22, 2025, Allahshukur Pashazade:
“The Armenian Church poses a serious threat to all countries neighboring Armenia in the region.”
May 29, 2025, Nikol Pashinyan։
“Our churches have been turned into storage rooms. How can one speak of holiness while being so far removed from it?”
May 27, 2025, Bern, Switzerland, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II:
“During the 44-day war in 2020 and the large-scale military offensive in 2023, Artsakh was completely occupied and its Armenian population was displaced.”
May 30, 2025 – Anna Hakobyan:
“What are you doing in Switzerland? Who exactly are you sending home safely? Who are you freeing from captivity? Do you even understand what ‘spiritual’ means? What a revelation!”
June 4, 2025 – Azerbaijani Milli Mejlis Member Azer Badamov:
“The Church’s policy is essentially about occupying Azerbaijani territory and pushing people to the brink with fantasies of a mythical Armenia.”
February 4, 2025 – Gunay Afandiyeva, Member of the Azerbaijani Milli Mejlis:
“Armenia is governed by ultra-nationalist organizations such as the Hnchaks and the Dashnaktsutyun Party, which operate on an overtly anti-Turkish and anti-Azerbaijani ideology. Naturally, this raises certain questions…”
February 11, 2025 – Nikol Pashinyan:
“In reality, every political party operating in Armenia has functioned under the ideological umbrella of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun. One has to ask: if that’s the case, why didn’t we all just join Dashnaktsutyun? The ANM (ed. Armenian National Movement Party) thought they were more Dashnak than the Dashnaks themselves. The CC (ed. Civil Contract Party) believed we were better Dashnaks than the Dashnaks ever were.”
April 13, 2021 – Ilham Aliyev:
“Everyone now understands that the Armenian Army does not exist. They had 10,000 deserters -10,000, what an ‘unbeatable army!’ The entire perception has changed. You are absolutely right - this was a psychological distortion.”
April 1, 2023, Anna Hakobyan:
“We love using lofty words to mask reality. But the reality is that during the 44-day war, we had 11,000 deserters—volunteers, servicemen, others.”
June 15, 2023, Nikol Pashinyan:
“Perhaps our biggest mistake was relying on the army…”
December 24, 2022, Ilham Aliyev:
“There was no Armenia in this region before. Today’s Armenia is our land… Let us work together to return to Western Azerbaijan. Now that the Karabakh conflict has been settled, this issue is on our agenda. Of course, before the conflict’s resolution, it was too early to talk about it, but now, we should not waste time…”
May 24, 2023 – Nikol Pashinyan:
“We live on land that never had a ‘cadaster paper,’ and now we are trying to acquire that ‘cadaster paper’ for the first time in history. We aim to become de jure owners, not just de facto. We want to overcome the status of a mere possessor and instead hold a ‘cadaster certificate’ - that is, be a state with internationally recognized, demarcated, and delimited borders.”
April 10, 2024, Nikol Pashinyan:
"The Government and I have come to the conclusion that 'historical Armenia' and the real Armenia are not only incompatible - they contradict one another and pose serious threats to each other."
April 23, 2024, Ilham Aliyev:
"There must be a distinction between real and mythical Armenia. They call it 'historical,' but I call it 'mythical,' because history should not be manipulated. They’ve built myths out of history."
