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Historian Ruben Melkonyan, dean of the YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, has expressed support for the protest movement against the Armenian government’s unilateral territorial concessions to Azerbaijan led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan of the Tavush Diocese.

Melkonyan states the Armenian Apostolic Church has historically stood with the country and people in desperate times.

“We’ve found ourselves in a desperate situation again. The uprising by the Church and clerics indicates that we are in a deep crisis when politicians and political forces are unable to consolidate the nation amid a collapse of the political system,” the expert told Panorama.am in an interview on Friday.

He hailed the key goals of the protest movement announced by the archbishop, including national solidarity and removal of hate speech.

“I strongly believe there are chances to get out of this humiliating situation,” Melkonyan noted.

He brushed aside the accusations made by members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party that Archbishop Bagrat and other clerics who joined the protest movement seek theocracy in Armenia.

“The accusations that Rev. Fr. Bagrat seeks to come to power and establish theocracy are totally absurd,” the historian stressed, accusing Pashinyan and his team of efforts to cling to power.