Euronews misrepresents the squabble between Pashinyan and the clergyman making some corrections hours later

Euronews, an international news broadcaster in Europe, covered the domestic political situation in Armenia on June 26, misrepresented an episode of the Pashinyan-church dispute, as well as made an inaccurate claim. However, about three hours later, the leading European media outlet corrected the error.

In particular, in the first version of the article, Euronews (author: Gavin Blackburn) presents the dispute between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Priest Zareh Ashuryan and notes: “…Nikol Pashinyan accepted the clergyman’s challenge to prove that he is circumcised, a practice common among Christians in the country” (old version of the article is available here – ed.).

One of the major European media outlets, however, is mistaken: circumcision is not only not a common practice among Armenian Christians, but it doesn’t exist at all.

The outlet later corrected the error and removed the claim, noting: “Pashinyan responded to a challenge by the Armenian Apostolic Church, saying that he is ready to prove that he is uncircumcised.”

It should be noted that circumcision is a surgical procedure in which the fold of skin covering the head of the male genital organ is removed. It is used for various purposes: religious, cultural, or health.

While circumcision is widespread among Jews and Muslims, it is not common in Christianity. Circumcision is especially uncommon among Armenians. Circumcision can be performed only in some exceptional cases, for health reasons or in the case of national minorities (for example, Yezidis, Muslims).

Other corrections by Euronews

In addition to the above, Euronews made other corrections to the published article as well. In particular, the media outlet incorrectly presented Pashinyan’s quote, writing: “…Nikol Pashinyan accepted the clergyman’s challenge to prove that he is circumcised….”

Meanwhile, when the clergyman, alluding to Pashinyan, declared that “the Holy Apostolic Church must cleanse itself of those false ‘believers’ who have recently replaced the Holy Seal with the sign of circumcision,” Pashinyan responded on his Facebook page as follows: “Ktrich Nersisyan’s spokesman published a statement that I am allegedly circumcised. I am ready to receive Ktrich Nersisyan and his spokesman and prove the opposite.”

As a result of this change in context, the Euronews headline was also changed, and the new version emphasized the fact of being uncircumcised.

The author of the article initially presented the Armenian Apostolic Church as Orthodox, then changed it, emphasizing the word “apostolic.”

It should be noted that the new version of the article states that the article was updated after clarifications were provided by the Armenian Prime Minister’s Office.

By the way, articles emphasizing the initial version of the Euronews article were also circulated in the Russian media a few days ago.

Hasmik Hambardzumyan