“J’accuse” The Armenian Nation

By Noubar Serabian, The California Courier 12 January 2026

https://www.thecaliforniacourier.com/jaccuse-the-armenian-nation/

The French expression “J’accuse” (I accuse) is a generic term used to describe gross violations of moral and ethical principles. It is a simple form of denouncing the deceitful behavior of individuals, groups, and State institutions. It was and remains a rallying cry for truth and justice in the face of corruption, abuse of power, and naked attempts to mutilate the identity of the Armenian nation.

The accusation I am referring to, is HYPOCRISY. Back in October 2021, in an article titled “We have become a nation of hypocrites” I explained the reasons that propelled me to the conclusion that our “Moral Compass” was no longer functional, and our very survival as a nation is at stake, if we keep in power a sociopath demagogue named Nikol Pashinyan.

The article fell on deaf ears and almost five years later nothing has changed. On the contrary a thorny situation moved from bad to worse, forcing a nation to confront directly the horrors associated with the possible collapse of The Third Republic, and the determination of a “Manchurian Candidate” (Nikol Pashinyan) to create a Fourth Republic or a “Real Armenia” that reflects a blind compliance with the demands of Petro-Dictator Aliyev and Sultan Erdogan of Turkey.

As a nation we pledged to the 1.5 million martyrs of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 “Never Again”. Yet, in September 2023 we allowed a Turkish tribe (Azerbaijan), that prides itself for being part of the formula known as “One Nation Two States (Turkey, Azerbaijan)”, to unleash a barbaric military campaign on Artsakh, depopulate the land, and force the indigenous Armenian population to seek refuge in Armenia. We had three years (2020-2023) to prepare for the nightmarish bloody script written by Petro-Dictator Aliyev. Yet, beyond mere slogans, lip service, and crocodile tears, we as a nation refused to adopt any tangible measure to keep the shadow of Aliyev away from Stepanakert. We allowed him to continue what the Ittihadists started in 1915. Ironically, Aliyev succeeded because a “Useful Idiot” named Nikol Pashinyan was convinced that he can buy “Peace” for Armenia by endorsing the “Ethnic Cleansing” of Artsakh by the Azerbaijani Army.

In mid 2025, Pashinyan launched a vicious campaign to silence all those who dared to question the myopic compromises he made to Aliyev without getting anything in return. From the pages of his Facebook account, Pashinyan declared the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) as the number one enemy of the Armenian State. Under Pashinyan’s watchful eyes nothing was sacred. From the constitution to the Coat of Arms, everything was listed for sale if it was deemed conducive to the signature of a piece of paper called “Peace Treaty.”

For almost a year, the most urgent attention, the most intense efforts of the Pashinyan government were channeled to the destruction of the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Why? Simply because his Holiness Karekin II dared to declare in May 2025, from the highest podium of an international gathering held in Bern, Switzerland, that the Artsakh file is not closed and the AAC will not remain indifferent to the destruction of Armenian churches, monasteries, and religious monuments currently under Azeri occupation. In Switzerland, his Holiness Karekin II urged the international community to intervene and put an end to the “Cultural Genocide” waged by the Azeri Army in Artsakh, and emphasized the need to facilitate the return of the 130,000 Artsakhtsis to their ancestral homeland under international supervision and guarantees.

For PM Pashinyan, the statements made by Karekin II were nothing short of shameful embarrassment undermining the authority of a government desperately insisting that the Artsakh file is closed, sealed, and under no condition it will be revisited during the diplomatic maneuvers to hammer out a “Peace Treaty” with Azerbaijan. In Pashinyan’s calculations, a “Peace Treaty” does not have to be “Just” as long as it meets the basic requirement he calls “POR YEV POGH”, meaning if the citizens of Armenia end up having a stomach full of food and a pocket full of money, following the signature of a “Peace Treaty” with Azerbaijan, Artsakh will be banished to the most obscure and remote pages of Armenian history.

Pashinyan knew, from the early stages of his crusade directed against the AAC, that silencing the leadership of the AAC will not be a walk in the park, and definitely victory will not be achieved by relying strictly on derogatory opinions voiced from his Facebook page. Only an all-out war with AAC will conquer the enemy of the State, and create a “New Church” compliant with his instructions while being fully committed to respecting the will of Azerbaijan’s Petro-Dictator Aliyev.

The dirty methods adopted by Pashinyan to annihilate the leadership of the AAC did not escape the attention of the Lemkin Institute For Genocide Prevention (LIPG). In a scathing report titled “Statement on the Suppression of the Armenian Apostolic Church: Historical Continuities of Identity Erasure within Victim Groups” LIPG argued that “...the ongoing state repression against the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia, including the arrests and intimidation of clergy, the targeting of ecclesiastical institutions, and the state’s increasing use of the legal system to silence religious leadership. These developments represent a dangerous challenge to Armenia’s democratic institutions as well as an encroachment on the core institutions of Armenian identity. They are an unfortunate example of how genocidal processes can become internalized during periods of threat.”

LIPG also warned the world that “The combination of selective prosecutions, limited transparency, and direct state intervention in religious affairs raises serious concerns that legal mechanisms are being used [by the Pashinyan government] not to uphold the law but to undermine the autonomy of the Armenian Apostolic Church.”

In depicting the extreme measures adopted by the Turkish Ittihadists prior to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the parallels discerned today in the measures used callously by the Pashinyan government LIPG argued that “The Armenian Apostolic Church has for centuries served as the spiritual, cultural, and historical foundation of the Armenian people. From the fourth century, when Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, the Church has been the principal guardian of Armenian continuity, preserving language, culture, and memory during centuries of foreign domination. Its survival through periods of colonization, genocide, and exile has long symbolized the endurance of the Armenian nation itself.

The current wave of repression echoes a familiar and tragic historical pattern deeply embedded in the collective memory of the Armenian people. During the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923), the Ottoman authorities did not merely seek to murder or remove a population; they aimed to obliterate an entire civilization by severing its identity from its moral and spiritual core. The first phase of the genocide began with the systematic targeting of Armenian intellectuals, clergy, and community leaders, a deliberate strategy to decapitate the nation’s leadership and erase the voices that could organize resistance or preserve cultural cohesion.

The Ottoman leadership understood that Armenian Christianity was not merely a religion but the vessel of Armenian national identity, a center of education, and a vehicle for collective memory. Ottoman assaults on the Church were not collateral damage; they were the deliberate destruction of a people’s spiritual infrastructure. By destroying the Church, Ottoman leaders sought to dismantle the very mechanism that had enabled the Armenian identity to survive centuries of imperial domination and cultural suppression.

This calculated campaign against Armenian Christianity reveals that genocide operates not only through physical annihilation but also through cultural and spiritual identity erasure. The eradication of the Church as the moral compass and unifying institution of the nation was central to the genocidal logic. It sought to produce a population stripped of its historical consciousness, its sacred geography, and its communal bonds. The scars of this destruction persist today as thousands of Armenian religious monuments remain in ruins or under threat in Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

LIPG clearly condemned the efforts of the Pashinyan government to destroy the Armenian Apostolic Church” and labeled them as a “Cultural Genocide” focused on the erasure of the Armenian national identity. All the efforts are, and will remain an integral part of Pashinyan’s plan to create a “Real Armenia” where the Armenian citizen is the serf of Petro-Dictator Aliyev, and the Armenian government is the obsequious lackey executing without any reservation the orders conveyed from Baku.

We failed to hold Pashinyan, the architect of the “Engineered Defeat” of the 44-Day War accountable for the loss of 5,000 brave Armenian soldiers, sacrificed casually to protect the political future of a sociopath occupying the Office of The Prime Minister of Armenia.

We failed to hold Pashinyan accountable for declaring in the City of Prague (October 2022) that Artsakh is part and parcel of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

We failed to hold Pashinyan accountable for the “Ethnic Cleansing” of Artsakh in September 2023.

We failed to stop the “Cultural Genocide” Pashinyan is implementing today by destroying the Armenian Apostolic Church.

How difficult is it for a nation (Hayrenik & Diaspora) to remember the promise we made known as “Never Again”?

How difficult is it for a nation to ban an evil ruler from the political landscape of Armenia by defeating him during the elections of June 2026?

Remember, as a newly elected Chancellor, Hitler promised his nation that he will be the architect of an “Empire” that will last 1000 years. In nine years (1936-1945) Germany was in ruins.

Like Hitler, Pashinyan is promising us a “Prosperous Fourth Republic” dominated economically by the two Turkish tribes (Azerbaijan, Turkey) and resting on the ruins of a “Cultural Genocide” that will declare Armenia as the most recent Villayet of Turkey.

After all the failures listed above, do you think we honored the promise “Never Again” we made to the 1.5 million martyrs of the Armenian Genocide of 1915?