Vahe H Apelian
Whenever Armenian Church and the Armenian State conflict was mentioned, a few historical happenings came to my mind. But recent developments in Armenia have made me look back when it all began.
After the Arshakunis founded the Armenian Church, the Arshakuni kingdom became marred with conflict between the church and the state that founded the church. After the death of King Trtad III (Tiridates) in 331, and for the ensuing approximately one-century - between 331 to 428, when the Arskakuni kingdom came to its end – the period was marked with, I quote: “an uncommon instability and indetermination, affecting both political and social life in Armenia. Continuous plots, intrigues, murders between antagonists (local and foreign), and the struggle about the newly adopted Christian faith marked tragically the situation throughout the main homeland.”
The relation between these two power institutions, the church and the state, was so intense that king Diran II (338-350) ordered the killing of Catholicos St. Husik I, the grandson of St. Gregory the Illuminator. To bolster the foundation of the state, King Arshak II, who languished in prison in Persia, had founded a capital city for his kingdom and named it Arshakavan. The city so enraged Catholicos Nerses the Great, a descendent of St. Gregory, whom king Arshak II had presented for the throne in Etchmiadzin, that the Catholicos condemned the city so much so that the name Arshakavan for Armenians became and remained synonymous with the biblical twin cities Sodom and Gomorrah. The church and the state conflict became full blown with king Arshak’s son king Bab, who inherited the throne after his father’s death and changed the church as an institution.
The following historical anecdote also comes to my mind. After moving to the monastery Varak in Van, Khrimian Hayrig had the remains of King Senekerim exhumed and banished somewhere. Khrimian Hayrig did not see that king Senekerim merited remaining buried on the grounds of the famed monastery in Van, because, I quote “ in 1021, fearing the Seljuks, Senekerim, the old king of Vaspurakan, bestowed Vaspurakan to Byzantium and moved to Sebastia.”
In recent times, the fate of Catholicos of All Armenians Khoren I Muradbekian (Armenian: Խորեն Ա Մուրադբեկյան; December 8, 1873 – April 5/6, 1938) represents the most troubling aspect of the Armenian church and the Armenian state conflict. It is generally accepted that Catholicos Khoren I Muradbekian was killed by the commissars of the Soviet Republic of Armenia.
The Armenian church and the Armenian state conflict appears to be reignited. On June 13, 2024, the PM Nikol Pashinyan, before presenting to the National Assembly the annual budget, alluded to the confrontation that happened the day before, on June 12, between the police and the demonstrators led by Archbishop Pagrad. The PM named two persons who, he claimed, stood behind the protesters, the former president Robert Kocharian and the Catholicos of All Armenian Karekin II. The PM also invoked Arshakuni king Bab. It is beyond the scope of this blog to speculate on the possible reasons for the PM invoking king Bab.
But I would like to note that there is a major disconnect and imbalance between the two power houses that make up the structure of the Armenian nation. One of which is seated in Etchmiadzin and the other is seated in Yerevan. The power house seating in Yerevan, represents the Armenian state and is elected by the citizens of Armenia. But the power house seating in Etchmiadzin, represents the Armenian church and is elected by Armenian representatives from all over the world.
The head of the Armenian church need not be a citizen of Armenia, as was the case with His Holiness of blessed memory, Karekin I. Nor his electors need to be citizens of Armenia. But the head of the Armenian state has to be a citizen of Armenia and be elected by the citizens of Armenia. In fairness and most likely in matters of the constitutionality and legality, the two different electoral systems present a huge and untenable imbalance and is a focal point for simmering conflict as the church can meddle in politics or in the affairs of the state, and does so.
It probably is time for Armenia to designate Etchmiadzin what Vatican is, a state-city. Naturally, in case of the Armenian Etchmiadzin will be the city-state that oversees the Armenian Apostolic Church spread throughout the globe. And, much like any state, Etchmiadzin city-state will have a state level relationship with the state of Armenia as it does with other countries, much like Vatican in Rome does with State of Italy and other countries.
Without such an arrangement, the Armenian Church and the Armenian State relations will be a sour point not only for the republic of Armenia, but also for the global Armenian nation, and the spiritual mission of the Apostolic Church will continue to be mired and viewed tinted with politics eroding its Christian mission and outreach to the detriment of the Republic of Armenia and to the global Armenian nation.
Notes:
1. This ends my take on the Arshakuni Armenian dynastic kingdom that impacted in the shaping of the Armenian nation. After all the members of the Arshakuni dynastic family transitioned the Armenian nation from worshipping the old gods to embracing Christianity. It has a legendary king, Arshak II, after whom a legend has come down and an opera is named. The young Arshakuni King Bab, shaped the newly established church and state relation and is reverberated to this day. If those were not enough, a young monk by the name of Mesrob Mashdots invented the Armenian alphabet during the last king of their dynastic kingdom, king Vramshabouh. It is no wonder that this dynastic family stirs the nation's imagination to this day. A Facebook account has been named after them.. Who were the Arshakunis? In seven installments I attempted to present them as a blogge,r not as a historian I am not. N.B. I used Arshak as the root word when addressing the family and its members. Vahe H. Apelian
2. I would like to note that the schisms in the Armenian church started in the 18th century. The Armenian Catholic Church came about on November 26, 1742, and the Armenian Evangelical Church came about on July 1, 1846. Before those dates all Armenians without exception belonged to the church Arshakuni King Drtad III and St. Gregory the Illuminator founded, which came to be known as the Armenian Church. The designation Armenian Apostolic Church in distinction to the Armenian Catholic and the Armenian Evangelical Churches is relatively recent. It is within this context that I used the term Armenian Church.
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