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Armenia’s former Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan took to Facebook on Monday to denounce the attempts to pressure and intimidate the priest of St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in the town of Sisian in Syunik Province, Father Pargev Zeynalyan after he snubbed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s offered handshake at the church and instead showed the exit door.

“I appeal to all those who are carrying out Nikol's hysterical order, trying to pressure and intimidate the pastor of the Sisian church, Father Pargev Zeynalyan.

“Without any ambiguity and subtext, I warn the wealthy thief hiding under the fake account of “Maestro” (soon the accused) and the vermins from the Civil Contract party who have been sent from Yerevan [to Sisian]: don't you dare to come any closer to Fr. Pargev or the Sisian church, don’t even dare to think that you can make a tart remark about him or give him a dirty look, blasphemers!” he wrote.

“The father may even forgive you, after all, he is a priest, but many, including me, won’t. I will punish you as an Armenian, as a man, as a follower of the Apostolic Church, and only after that I will let you to be judged with the full force of the law,” Minasyan added.