Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian, who heads a diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church encompassing the northwestern Shirak province, also sparked a fresh war of words between opposition groups led by the two ex-presidents.
Their loyalists already traded bitter recriminations earlier this year. In particular, the head of Kocharian’s office, Bagrat Mikoyan, claimed that Sarkisian systematically sought through his political team to demonize and discredit Kocharian after succeeding the latter as president of the republic in 2008. The accusations prompted strong rebuttals from senior members of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
In an interview published earlier this week, Ajapahian described Kocharian as an “efficient” leader who guaranteed peace in Armenia during his decade-long rule. He also charged that Sarkisian is primarily to blame for the Armenian opposition’s failure to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
“Serzh Sarkisian’s approach is as follows: either I will return to power or Nikol will stay in power,” he said.
The remarks provoked a storm of criticism from HHK figures mostly expressed through social media.
“This is an absolute lie,” said Anna Mkrtchian, an Armenian parliament deputy representing the former ruling party. She recalled that Ajapahian supported the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.
Mkrtchian and another prominent HHK figure, Armen Ashotian, linked Ajapahian’s criticism to verbal attacks on Sarkisian made by Kocharian’s loyalists. Ashotian claimed that the outspoken cleric has become a “propaganda tool” in the hands of the Kocharian camp. Agnesa Khamoyan of the Kocharian-led Hayastan alliance hit back at the “cheap” and “disgraceful” attacks.
Ajapahian laughed off the accusations when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday. “I have not been and will not be in anyone’s political camp,” he said.
Ajapahian blamed for both ex-presidents last fall for the failure of a protest movement led by another archbishop, Bagrat Galstanian, to force Pashinian to resign. He said Galstanian’s biggest mistake was to cooperate with them during the anti-government protests triggered by Pashinian’s territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
Ajapahian insisted on Wednesday that he has not changed his view and believes that Kocharian and Sarkisian are motivated by a “lust for power” and must both leave the political arena.
Kocharian and Sarkisian are natives of Nagorno-Karabakh who led the region during the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. Despite occasionally criticizing some of the Sarkisian administration’s policies, Kocharian kept a low profile after completing his second and final presidential term in 2008.
He officially returned to active politics following the disastrous 2020 war in Karabakh, setting up his alliance that was the Pashinian-led Civil Contract party’s main challenger in snap parliamentary elections held in 2021. According to Armenia’s Central Election Commission, Hayastan finished second with 21 percent of the vote, followed by Sarkisian’s Pativ Unem bloc that got 5.2 percent.