Pashinyan apologizes for rude remarks about church

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has apologized for using expressions inappropriate for a politician when addressing the clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Report informs.

The corresponding message was published on the prime minister's Facebook page.

"The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption recorded a violation of the rules of conduct in my speech in two known episodes. Although I do not fully agree with some of the assessments, I apologize," Pashinyan wrote.

He emphasized that the apology concerns only two phrases regarding which the commission made a decision.

Earlier, the commission concluded that Pashinyan violated the code of conduct for an official. The investigation began after Pashinyan published a post with unflattering comments about the clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The prime minister's statements were subjected to linguistic examination, which established that the word "dompel" in the Armenian language has two meanings ("to hit" and "to have sexual intercourse"), and the prime minister used the second meaning in his post. According to the experts' conclusions, Pashinyan's post "has a rude and obscene subtext due to the choice of words."