THE TWO SENTENCES, IN SEQUENCE
1. «Ժողովրդավարական պետության հայեցակարգում քաղաքացին պետության Աստվածն է» — "In the conception of a democratic state, the citizen is the God of the state."
2. «Քաղաքացին այն մարդն է, որ սիրում է իր պետությունը, ինչպես ինքն իրեն» — "The citizen is the person who loves his state as he loves himself."
What Sentence 1 Does
PUBLIC RECORD The construction "the citizen is the God of [X]" is, in any language, a theologically loaded sentence. It does not say "the citizen is at the centre of the state" or "the citizen is the foundation of the state" or "the citizen is the source of the state's legitimacy" — all of which are routine democratic-theory formulations. It says the citizen is the God. The word «Աստված» — God, capitalised in Armenian-language usage when referring to the singular Christian God — is reserved, in standard Armenian rhetorical register, for one referent.
For a head of government to apply that referent to a different object — to state-citizenship — is to perform a substitution. The substitution can be read as:
- A doctrinal claim about democratic theory. Reading: in a "democratic state," the citizen has the role that "God" holds in a "non-democratic" state. The citizen is the ultimate source of legitimacy, in the sense that the deity is the ultimate source of legitimacy in a theocracy.
- A theological displacement. Reading: where you used to have God in your conception of the state, you should now have the citizen. The transition is from theocratic-source-of-state to citizen-source-of-state. Etchmiadzin moves out; the voter moves in.
- A civic-religion construction. Reading: the state is the new church; the citizen is the new God; April 25 is the new April 24.
The three readings are not mutually exclusive. They are progressively stronger. By the third reading, what is being said in Maralik is what is also being done — across the same calendar day — to the visible role of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The two are the same project at two different registers.
What Sentence 2 Does
The second sentence — "the citizen is the person who loves his state as he loves himself" — is the second half of the Christian double commandment of Matthew 22, in slot-substituted form. The original double commandment — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart" + "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" — is the theological backbone of Western and Eastern Christianity. The Pashinyan reformulation does this:
| Christian original | Pashinyan Maralik |
| Love the Lord thy God | The citizen is the God of the state |
| Love thy neighbour as thyself | Love thy state as thyself |
Both halves are substituted simultaneously. God → Citizen. Neighbour → State. The same speech, the same minute, the same paragraph in the same address. The choice is deliberate.
The Same-Day Etchmiadzin Treatment
The civic-religion construction in Maralik is not happening in isolation from the same day's Etchmiadzin-related events:
- PUBLIC RECORD Per Azatutyun.am: Catholicos Karekin II of All Armenians visited Tsitsernakaberd on April 24 separately from state officials.
- PUBLIC RECORD Per Azatutyun.am: Public Television did not broadcast his visit.
- PUBLIC RECORD Per Azatutyun.am: The Genocide Museum-Institute removed information about his visit from its public materials.
Read together with the Maralik substitution, the meaning compounds. The Catholicos — the senior religious authority of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the institutional embodiment of the term «Աստված» in Armenian public life — is, on April 24, materially excluded from the visible state record of Genocide Day. Then, on April 25, the Prime Minister stands in Maralik and applies «Աստված» to the citizen of the state. The vacated theological slot is being repopulated by the new term in less than 36 hours.
Why This Matters For The Pre-June-7 Period
The Armenian Apostolic Church is, structurally, the largest non-state political institution in the Republic of Armenia and across the global Armenian diaspora. Its endorsement, neutrality, or opposition shapes electoral cycles. Across the post-2018 period, the relationship between the Pashinyan administration and Etchmiadzin has progressively cooled — see OWL's earlier coverage of the «Church-State Dossier» case in our investigation files.
The April 24-25 sequence makes the cooling explicit at the symbolic level. A Prime Minister who, on April 25, calls the citizen «Աստված» — God — of the state, is not a Prime Minister who plans to govern, in the next year, with the Catholicos as a parallel public-life authority. The intent is to retire the parallel.
The June 7 election is, on present polling, contested. Etchmiadzin's posture in the final 43 days of the campaign — sermons, encyclicals, formal statements, parish-level guidance — is one of the variables. The Maralik «Աստված» substitution is, among other things, a public-theatre challenge to that posture, designed either to provoke a counter-statement that can then be characterised as "Church interference in elections," or to test whether the Church withdraws from the field.
What OWL Will Track
- Whether Catholicos Karekin II issues a formal Etchmiadzin response to the «քաղաքացին պետության Աստվածն է» formulation within 7 days.
- Whether the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin's official media (Diocese newsletters, Հայ Եկեղեցի publication, parish-level Sunday-sermon guidance) addresses the substitution.
- Whether Public Television, having declined to broadcast the Catholicos's April 24 Tsitsernakaberd visit, broadcasts his next public appearance.
- Whether the Genocide Museum-Institute restores the information it removed about his April 24 visit.
- Whether the full text of the Maralik «Իրական Հայաստանի գաղափարախոսություն» speech is published — by the Office of the Prime Minister or by any Armenian outlet — with the «Աստված» line in its full context.
- Whether any Civil Contract member publicly distances themselves from the formulation.
Cross-References Inside OWL
- April 25, "Citizen's Day": Pashinyan In Maralik Delivering A "Real Armenia Ideology" Speech
- "The Akhranniks Brought Grandmothers In Cars": Hraparak Reports Pashinyan's Maralik Crowd Was Staged
- "Mr. Pashinyan, We Are With You, Everything Will Be Fine": The Praise Script Replays In Artik
- The Apolitical Tree-Planting: Tigran Avinyan Stays Above The April 25 Doctrine
- "Historical Wounds Can Become A Foundation For Development": Alen Simonyan's April 24 Reframe
- "A Double-Edged Sword": Pashinyan Refuses To Pursue The Destruction Of Stepanakert Cathedral
Sources
- 1in.am, April 25, 2026: «Ժողովրդավարական պետության հայեցակարգում քաղաքացին պետության Աստվածն է. Փաշինյան» — direct headline-level quote attributed to Pashinyan during the Maralik speech.
- 1in.am, April 25, 2026: «Քաղաքացին այն մարդն է, որ սիրում է իր պետությունը, ինչպես ինքն իրեն․ Փաշինյան» — paired sentence from the same speech.
- 1in.am, April 25, 2026: «Նիկոլ Փաշինյանը Մարալիկում հանդես է գալիս Իրական Հայաստանի գաղափարախոսությունը խորագրով բանախոսությամբ․ "Ժողովուրդն է ստեղծել և ստեղծում պետությունը։ Հետևաբար քաղաքացին այն…"» — verbatim opening of the Maralik speech.
- Azatutyun.am, April 24, 2026: "Կաթողիկոսը Ծիծեռնակաբերդ այցելեց պաշտոնյաներից առանձին, Հանրայինը չհեռարձակեց նրա այցը."
- Azatutyun.am, April 24, 2026: "Ցեղասպանության թանգարան-ինստիտուտը հեռացրել է կաթողիկոսի այցի մասին տեղեկությունը."
- OWL parallel investigations cited above.
OWL is an anonymous collective of Armenian journalists. We take no money from any political party, bloc, movement, oligarch, foreign government, or foundation. Our reading of the Maralik formulation as a deliberate civic-religion substitution is, by definition, an analytic claim — not an established factual finding. The two underlying sentences (1in.am-sourced) and the three Etchmiadzin-related public-record items (Azatutyun.am-sourced) are factual.