💬 “This person does not understand the psychology of the people. He only knows that they can be intimidated. But he doesn’t understand that this can be done once, twice, [and only to] part of the people,” Aikazun Alvrtsyan, director of the Center for the Study of Armenian Issues in Western Armenia, told Sputnik, commenting on the ongoing crackdown on the Church and opposition in Armenia.

💬 “When you go against the Church, against everything holy that the Armenian people have,” it will not end well. “This is the beginning of the end for this government,” Alvrtsyan stressed, commenting on events, which began with the detention of Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, and has now escalated to arrests of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, deacons and scores of opposition activists.

💬 “The Church plays a special role in our lives. This prime minister has declared himself prime minister only in the Republic of Armenia, and is afraid of the authority of the Church and the Catholicos” and priests in general, whose authority among the people is “very great,” Alvrtsyan explained.

💬 “Ukraine was made an anti-Russia with Western money, and now it is not fighting for its own interests,” he says.

“The Church is the only unifying authority left in Armenia,” Abramyan said, stressing its role as a stabilizing force.

"We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire," he told reporters.

"Vladimir Putin made some very nice statements today... He respects our country," the US president told reporters.

"Some say there is a potential conflict, we'll work it out is there is," he told reporters.