During the pre-election period, political life often becomes very noisy. This noise, however, often has little to do with the genuine clash of ideas. Instead, its purpose is to distract, obscure, distort, and replace important matters. Therefore, it is crucial to look beyond the noise to understand its true goals and potential external influences. In this context, the recent surge of activity surrounding Mikayel Minasyan is worth examining, possibly due to its strategic implications.<\/p>\n
The noise surrounding Mikayel Minasyan, Armenia\u2019s former ambassador to the Vatican, transcends domestic politics and points to a singular external power center \u2014 the Holy See. For decades, the Vatican has viewed the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) as a unique and strategically significant institution. This stems from the ancient history of the AAC, its spiritual authority, its preserved heritage, and, finally, the Vatican's strategic goal of integrating the Armenian Church into the Catholic world \u2014 a goal that Pope Francis explicitly defined as early as 2016.<\/p>\n
Within this context, Mikayel Minasyan and the media environment surrounding him take on a new, unsettling shape. Their activities go beyond electoral tactics and appear to be part of a long-term strategy where not only political power is at stake, but also the country's cultural and spiritual identity, and the fate of its most important spiritual institution.<\/p>\n
Minasyan and his media and political entourage \u2014 Mihran Hakobyan, Samvel Farmanyan, Narek Malyan, Artur Danielyan, and Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan \u2014 are locally known but have little impact on the political agenda. Yet, they have suddenly synchronized their efforts in a public, systematic verbal attack on Robert Kocharyan, his supporters, and the Armenia Alliance.<\/p>\n
While political polemics are not surprising, the nature of the criticism is significant. Their claims of an alleged \u201cbackstage deal\u201d between Kocharyan and Pashinyan, which attempt to rewrite the political processes of the past years post-factum, do not hold up under scrutiny. However, their goal is not to be convincing. Rather, they aim to create noise, provoke reactions, and drag others into conflict.<\/p>\n
Consider the information regarding a meeting between Mikayel Minasyan, businessman Kamo Avagumyan, and a Russian official overseeing Armenia-related matters in Moscow in 2025. It becomes clear that Minasyan\u2019s activities are not spontaneous. During this meeting, Minasyan reportedly sought to diminish Robert Kocharyan\u2019s influence in Moscow by limiting his contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
Minasyan reportedly proposed replacing Kocharyan as the key channel for communication on the Armenian agenda with Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I \u2014 figures who are not typically involved in political maneuvering. In other words, he suggested turning the Armenian Apostolic Church into a political tool, far beyond its traditional role.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, such an idea was destined to fail. Neither Russia nor the Church\u2019s hierarchy supported such kind of experiments.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Robert Kocharyan\u2019s team, including Victor Soghomonyan and Ishkhan Saghatelyan, largely chose to ignore these developments. It would be difficult to interpret their silence as weakness. Instead, it seems like a deliberate refusal to be drawn into an artificially constructed conflict.<\/p>\n
Turning to the actions of Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister has been persistently increasing pressure on the Armenian Apostolic Church. A new wave of conflict, which began in the spring of 2025, has now become systematic.<\/p>\n
On May 29, 2025, Pashinyan declared that most of the churches in Armenia were being used as \u201cclosets\u201d and were filled with garbage. The following day, his wife, Anna Hakobyan, made even harsher remarks, calling Karekin II \u201cthe country\u2019s key mafioso\u201d and referring to the clergy as \u201cmaniacs in black robes.\u201d Such rhetoric is a clear form of pressure.<\/p>\n
When these seemingly disparate elements are considered together, a clear pattern emerges. Minasyan\u2019s efforts to involve the Church in the political process were rejected. In response, the authorities shifted their strategy from offering influence to imposing it. The pressure, public attacks, and institutional restrictions have created a situation where the Church can no longer remain detached from politics, as it must now defend itself.<\/p>\n
Coincidence? It\u2019s theoretically possible, but in politics, such coincidences are rarely accidental \u2014 especially given Mikayel Minasyan\u2019s connections to Nikol Pashinyan\u2019s \u201cVelvet Revolution.\u201d One seeks to draw the Church into politics, the other seeks to force it. The underlying goal is clear: to undermine the Church\u2019s status as a supra-political institution.<\/p>\n
In this context, the campaign against Robert Kocharyan also fits into a broader agenda \u2014 creating an atmosphere of distrust toward any alternative center of influence.<\/p>\n
What we are witnessing is an attempt to reproduce a political and technological experiment that the country already experienced in 2018. Under the banner of the \u201cVelvet Revolution,\u201d Mikayel Minasyan \u2014 whose company had frequently purchased unsold copies of the Haykakan Zhamanak Daily, which was edited by Pashinyan \u2014 played a leading role in staging a controlled transfer of power from Serzh Sargsyan to Nikol Pashinyan.<\/p>\n
The consequences of that experiment are well known, including the erosion of statehood and the loss of Artsakh. That was the price the country paid for that political performance.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the current efforts to reshape reality through information warfare, manipulations, and attempts to involve the AAC in political struggles should not be seen as mere electoral maneuvers or a local conflict between the authorities and the clergy. These are components of a larger plan aimed at undermining the foundations of Armenia\u2019s national identity and state sovereignty by manipulating its key spiritual institutions. Ignoring this threat could lead to a repetition of the disastrous scenario from 2018, and the cost of that scenario would be far higher this time.<\/p>\n
In light of all the above, Mikayel Minasyan and his team, in sync with Nikol Pashinyan\u2019s actions against the Armenian Apostolic Church, are pursuing interconnected goals within a multi-level strategy.<\/p>\n
Minasyan acts as a proxy for the Vatican\u2019s interests \u2014 an institution that has long sought to integrate the Armenian Apostolic Church, not only for its spiritual significance and unique heritage but also for its geopolitical strategy.<\/p>\n
Interim Goal No. 1: The politicization of the Church \u2014 either by offering it an unnatural role as a political mediator (Minasyan\u2019s approach) or by applying aggressive pressure to force it into self-defense (Pashinyan\u2019s approach). The aim is to make the Church a key political factor.<\/p>\n
Interim Goal No. 2: The change of Church leadership. The discrediting of Catholicos Karekin II, labeling him a \u201cKremlin agent,\u201d alongside systematic attacks on the clergy, aims to weaken and ultimately replace the Church leadership with a more manageable one.<\/p>\n
Final Goal: External control. The ultimate strategic objective is to turn the weakened and politicized Church into the central domestic political force, thus establishing full political and ideological control by the Vatican over Armenia. This would pave the way for a shift in Armenia\u2019s civilizational orientation, severing its traditional alliances and drawing it into the orbit of other geopolitical interests.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the events we are witnessing are not mere electoral maneuvers or a local conflict between the authorities and the clergy. These are components of a deeper strategy aimed at undermining the foundations of Armenia's national identity and state sovereignty by manipulating its key spiritual institutions. Ignoring this threat could lead to a repetition of the disastrous scenario of 2018, and the price of such a scenario would be much higher this time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minasyan and his media and political entourage \u2014 Mihran Hakobyan, Samvel Farmanyan, Narek Malyan, Artur Danielyan, and Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan \u2014 are locally known but have little impact on the political agenda. Yet, they have suddenly synchronized their efforts in a public, systematic verbal attack on Robert Kocharyan, his supporters, and the Armenia Alliance.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7769,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7768\/revisions\/7769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armtribunal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}