Opposition MP slams Pashinyan's church remarks, calls him 'political corpse'

Opposition lawmaker Hayk Mamijanyan has strongly criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for his recent offensive remarks about the Armenian Apostolic Church and its senior clergy.

"I was thinking about how to respond to Nikol Pashinyan’s comments on the church. The simplest explanation is that Nikol Pashinyan is a political corpse. And when corpses are not cleared away in time, they begin to stink," Mamijanyan said at a press briefing on Friday.

The Pativ Unem faction head also placed some of the blame on the opposition for allowing what he described as a "political corpse" to remain in office.

"On May 22, Azerbaijan’s religious leader publicly launched an attack against the Armenian Apostolic Church. Just a week later, on May 29, that attack was echoed by the man clinging to the prime minister's office," he said.

Mamijanyan urged members of the ruling Civil Contract party to seriously reflect on Pashinyan’s remarks.

"I really want the Civil Contract MPs to read his posts – many of them, I’m certain, were baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church, were married there and sought solace in faith during the most difficult times in their lives. Let them ask themselves whether they are truly willing to stand behind such statements,” the MP stressed.