Armenia’s church-state dispute moves to the international arena
armenianweekly.com. The confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government and the Armenian Apostolic Church intensified this week.
On Sept. 24, the Information and Public Relations Center of the Office of the Prime Minister published a report titled “On the Crisis That Has Emerged in the church as a Result of the Actions of the de facto Head of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and a Number of Senior Clergy, and on Ways to Resolve It.” The center said the report was prepared pursuant to the Armenian government’s 2026-2031 program and on the direct instruction of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The document identifies 16 issues that it describes as evidence of a crisis within the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Among them are alleged violations of clerical celibacy, arbitrary disciplinary practices and defrocking of clergy, financial opacity, misuse of church property, nepotism in clerical appointments, politicization of the altar, foreign influence and institutional failures related to church governance. The report also refers to the failure to convene the National Ecclesiastical Assembly for 27 years, the absence of a unified church constitution and divisions within dioceses in the Armenian diaspora. It concludes with a five-step proposed road map for the church’s institutional crisis.
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Pashinyan says the church has been “seized”
Several hours after the report was published, Pashinyan addressed it publicly. The prime minister said the report had been prepared on his instructions and that reviewing the document had led him to conclude that the situation within the Armenian Apostolic Church was more serious than he had initially believed.
Pashinyan said the report showed that “The Armenian Apostolic Church has been seized by Ktrich Nersisyan and a group of clergy and laypeople who support him.” He urged the public to read the report and said the government would return to the subject.
Mother See rejects government report
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin responded to the government report, rejecting its findings and challenging the state’s involvement in church affairs. In its statement, the Mother See described the report as unconstitutional, anti-canonical and unlawful in both its content and form.
Church dispute reaches the Council of Europe
The confrontation received international attention again on Sept. 28 during a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. During a debate concerning Armenia’s June parliamentary elections, British parliamentarian Sir Edward Leigh raised the mistreatment of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Leigh said the church faced an “unprecedented threat” from Armenia’s government and accused the Pashinyan administration of abandoning the boundary between church and state. “Armenian governments have never before persecuted the church or tried to establish control over it. But the current government is putting bishops in custody and bringing charges against the Catholicos. Whatever the truth about these accusations may be, the situation itself raises serious questions. For Armenia and its international reputation, especially in the eyes of Christians like me, a situation in which bishops are held in custody looks extremely negative. I believe the Council of Europe should speak out more clearly and consistently on this issue,” Leigh said.
Civil Contract lawmaker Hripsime Grigoryan, a member of Armenia’s delegation to PACE, responded during her own intervention. Grigoryan called Leigh’s remarks regarding the Armenian Apostolic Church “very ill-informed.” “In fact, what the Armenian government and the Armenian state are doing is protecting the church,” Grigoryan told the Assembly.
Grigoryan said the government’s position concerned the activities of the person currently serving as Catholicos. She alleged that the Catholicos was directly involved in unlawful actions aimed at overthrowing the Armenian state. Grigoryan also alleged that the Catholicos’s brother was “an agent, an international agent,” and said her assertion was supported by facts and documents. She did not complete that portion of her remarks before being interrupted by the chair.
PACE President Elisabetta Gardini, who was presiding over the session, stopped Grigoryan and instructed her to remain on the subject of the debate. Grigoryan then continued by addressing criminal cases involving Armenian bishops. “The bishops are not arrested for being bishops,” she said. Grigoryan said criminal cases had been opened against them and emphasized that courts, rather than politicians, would determine the outcome.
She described the cases as involving allegations of terrorist acts against Armenian civilians, referring to the criminal proceedings against Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and 17 other individuals.
