Armenia's State Commission launches proceedings on Pashinyan's extremely offensive Facebook post

The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of Armenia, which also considers ethics issues, has launched proceedings on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's inappropriate post on Facebook regarding the clergy, said the acting head of the commission, Mariam Galstyan, Report informs referring to the Armenian media.

"We, on our own initiative, launched the proceedings on the day the post was published," she noted.

Galstyan also said that the commission is considering lawyer Ara Zohrabyan's complaint regarding Pashinyan's statement and will most likely decide on June 9 whether to launch the proceedings or not.

According to the acting head of the commission, if a decision is made that Pashinyan violated ethical standards, then according to the procedure, he will have to give a public explanation.

However, the commission cannot appeal to the prosecutor's office, since the issue is about violation of ethical standards, and not about signs of an obvious crime.

On May 29, during a government meeting, Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenian churches resemble "closets filled with junk." The next day, Pashinyan on his Facebook page accused one of the archbishops of having sex with his uncle's wife. A literal translation of what he wrote goes beyond the bounds of decency.

Afterwards, he accused the Catholicos of violating his celibacy and proposed changing the procedure for electing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church so that the state would have a decisive vote in the elections, and candidates would undergo a "check for integrity."