Benyamin Poghosyan - Pashinyan War on Armenian Church, EU-Armenia, Artsakh, Arar Poll | Ep 494, Sep 25, 2025 [EP494]

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Guest:

• Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan

Topics:

• 1988 Earthquake Remembered
• Pashinyan’s War on the Armenian Church
• EU-Armenia Relations
• Nagorno-Karabakh Negotiation Documents
• ARAR Foundation Poll

Episode 494 | Recorded: December 8, 2025

#ArmenianChurch #NSS #Pashinyan #ArarPoll #ArmeniaEU

Show Notes

Summary

This Week in Review with Benyamin Poghosyan looks at Pashinyan’s escalating confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church, including the arrest of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan on a narcotics “distribution” charge rooted in a 2018 incident, and the security services’ seizure of Gyumri’s Seven Wounds Church to stage a December 7 Divine Liturgy without mentioning the Catholicos. We discuss what these moves reveal about the regime’s goals toward Etchmiadzin, while polls show strong public support for both the Church and the Armed Forces. We also examine the new Armenia-EU “Strategic Agenda,” calls for Yerevan to join anti-Russia sanctions, EU funding against “Russian hybrid war,” Pashinyan’s selective publication of OSCE Minsk Group documents, and fresh polling on where Armenians see their main strategic partners and the Russian base in Gyumri.

Main Topics Addressed

• Arrest of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan on narcotics “distribution” charges tied to a 2018 “New Armenia, New Catholicos” break-in at Echmiadzin
• Role of the NSS, Investigative Committee, and loyal judges in turning the case into a political tool against the Church
• Seizure of Gyumri’s Seven Wounds Church for Pashinyan’s December 7 liturgy and pressure on Shirak clergy to omit the Catholicos’s name
• Broader pattern of Pashinyan’s attacks on the Church, including threats to “dethrone” the Catholicos and politicize symbols and rituals
• EU-Armenia “Strategic Agenda,” Kaja Kallas’s push for Armenia to align with EU sanctions on Russia, and new EU funding to fight “Russian hybrid war”
• Pashinyan’s selective “release” of OSCE Minsk Group and Karabakh negotiation documents after the MG’s dissolution
• Arar Foundation polling on trust in the government, Church, Armed Forces, police, and parliament, including demographic patterns
• Poll findings on preferred strategic partners (Russia, US, Iran, EU, Turkey) and attitudes toward the Russian base in Gyumri

Key Questions Discussed

• How does a years-old allegation linked to a 2018 protest at Echmiadzin get turned into a charge of narcotics distribution against Archbishop Arshak?
• If case assignment is meant to be random, why do so many high-profile and political cases land before the same judge?
• What does the use of pretrial detention against senior clergy tell us about the state of justice and due process in Armenia?
• Why is the NSS pressuring clergy over the content of the Divine Liturgy, and why is there so little international reaction to this level of state interference?
• What is Pashinyan’s endgame in his campaign against the Armenian Church, especially when polls show it is one of the most trusted institutions in the country?
• What does the EU really expect from Armenia on sanctions and “Russian hybrid war,” and how realistic is it for Armenia to comply?
• What is the political purpose behind publishing a narrow, selective set of OSCE MG documents while omitting key items like Key West?
• How should we interpret the rise in pro-Russia sentiment in the polls and the strong support for the Russian base in Gyumri?

Select Slides From Arar Poll

The results of a poll by the Arar Foundation were released last month.

Methodology

• Mode: Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) using tablets.
• Sampling: “Randomly generated” Armenian mobile phone numbers, with proportional coverage of the mobile network.
• Sample size: N = 1123 adults in Armenia.
• Fieldwork period: 5 Oct - 25 Oct 2025.
• Claimed margin of error: ±2.92% at 95% confidence.
• Honesty level: “Անկեղծության մակարդակը - 99.6% (ըստ հարցազրուցավարների գնահատականի)” - interviewer evaluated.

Satisfaction Levels With Institutions

1. National Assembly
   1. Low: 50.0%
   2. Medium: 24.4%
   3. High: 25.2%
   4. DK/Refuse: 0.3%
2. Armed Forces 5. Low: 14.3% 6. Medium: 18.1% 7. High: 66.4% 8. DK/Refuse: 1.2%
3. Police 9. Low: 23.2% 10. Medium: 21.1% 11. High: 54.6% 12. DK/Refuse: 1.0%
4. Government 13. Low: 39% 14. Medium: 20.5% 15. High: 39.5% 16. DK/Refuse: 0.4%
5. Armenian Apostolic Church 17. Low: 19.1% 18. Medium: 16.8% 19. High: 62.5% 20. DK/Refuse: 1.5%

Demographic Details

Strategic Partnership and Russian Base

One of the questions asked, from the following 5 powers (US, EU, Turkey, Russia or Iran), with which should Armenia form a military-strategic alliance. The top response, with 37.8%, was Russia. This rating, according to the pollster, has been gradually rising since July 2024, when it was at 24.3%. The second runner up was the US with 18.3% and the third was Iran with 17.5%.

The EU was 15.9% and Turkey was 5.4%.

Thoughts from the Participants

• Hovik: The 2026 parliamentary elections will be neither free nor fair.
• Benyamin: In our direst moments, we have turned to our history and found the will to stand up and win.

Referenced Articles & Sources

• Statement by Shirak Diocese clergy pledging loyalty to the Catholicos
• Strategic Agenda for the Armenia-EU Partnership
• Kaja Kallas remarks on the EU-Armenia partnership and Russia sanctions
• Armenian Government page: Karabakh Negotiation Documents
• Arar Foundation poll on attitudes toward Armenian institutions
• Arar Foundation official website

Wrap-up

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