The chairman of the "For the Republic" party, Arman Babajanyan, wrote on his "Facebook" page:
"Yesterday, it became known that Armen Sargsyan, known in the criminal world as "Armen Gorlovsky," died in a Moscow hospital. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), he belonged to the criminal elements of Viktor Yanukovych's inner circle. He had been on the international wanted list since 2014 on charges of organizing murders in the center of Kyiv. Since 2015, his name has been included in the "Peacemaker" database, which stated that Sargsyan participated in the formation of illegal armed groups and threatened the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Sargsyan's activities have always been associated with criminal and military crimes. He acted as an agent of the Russian authorities, and in 2022, he created a battalion called "Arbat," consisting of our compatriots living in Russia. In 2024, on the orders of the Russian authorities, his people were involved in organizing an attempted coup d’état in Armenia.
In addition, according to information, during the 44-day war, when Armenia and Artsakh were fighting a life-and-death struggle, Sargsyan not only did not provide any support to the homeland but also, on the orders of the Russian authorities, coordinated the ban on military or humanitarian aid from Russia to Armenia.
Against the background of all this, the statement of Archbishop Ezras Nersisyan, the Primate of the Diocese of Russia and New Nakhichevan of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who presented Sargsyan as pious and qualified his death as a "crime against humanity," was striking.
This statement is highly incomprehensible and unacceptable. How can the Armenian Apostolic Church present a criminal, who was known as a criminal authority, as a pious believer? How can the Church qualify a person who was behind the creation of illegal armed groups and the attempted coup d’état as a keeper of values? And how can a church representative defend a person whose role is to serve foreign interests more than the well-being of his state and people?
Throughout history, the Armenian Apostolic Church has been one of the most essential pillars of the Armenian people's identity, struggle, and spiritual defense.
The Church has never allowed such disrespect for the Armenian people as to openly describe the death of a criminal as a "crime against humanity" when the very activity of that person was anti-Armenian and harmful. Such approaches undermine the authority of the Church and endanger its role as the guardian of the national identity of the Armenian people."
