Personal Bank Accounts of High-Ranking Clergy Members Need to Be Released, says Expert

The Armenian Apostolic Church is not working transparently: the church, or it would be more correct to say the Catholicos, does not present financial reports neither to the society, nor to his congregates, said Partnership for Democracy director and human rights defender Stepan Danielyan in an interview with Asparez paper. 

“To my knowledge, there is a document regarding the church’s budget, however if that was presented to the public, then multiple questions would be raised and a demand for clarifications. Apparently, that is the reason the document is not released. Due to the latest incident, where Karekin II’s account was disclosed, personal accounts need to be released as well, because it is unclear whether the personal accounts are serving only them or the church as well. That is why it’s important to also release high ranking clergymen’s bank accounts,” said Danielyan.

To the journalist's remark that if the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists did not release the information about the $1.1 million dollars on Karekin II’s HSBC account, then the public would not have been aware of its existence, the human rights defender responded, “Despite everything, there are a lot of things we aren’t aware of. This is a systemic issue and doesn’t only relate to the church. It is related to all of us. There isn’t just the church and the Catholicos’s money. That money is ours as well, however, the society is unaware of that.”