Armenian government brings clerics to Trump as Etchmiadzin stays silent

The White House hosted a reception on Thursday at which U.S. President Donald Trump met with senior Armenian clerics based in the United States and Armenia’s ambassador to the country, Narek Mkrtchyan.

The meeting was organized by the Armenian Embassy in Washington in cooperation with the White House Faith Office.

“The meeting focused on the Christian and civilizational values that unite us, as well as on religious freedom and peace. [...] Armenian spiritual leaders offered a collective prayer for the well-being of Armenia and the United States, as well as for President Trump’s efforts aimed at establishing peace,” the embassy said in a statement.

One of the clerics in attendance was Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America. His presence is notable given his recent reversal in the dispute between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Catholicos Karekin II.

The conflict, which dates back to 2020, has been most pronounced since May 2025, when Pashinyan began calling on Karekin II to resign and announced a campaign aimed at what he described as the “cleansing of the Church.”

Also read: Religious leaders, including Artsakh Bishop, urge Karekin II’s exit

In November, Derderian co-signed an open letter urging Karekin II to resign with immediate effect. In January, Pashinyan and 10 archbishops, including Derderian, issued a “Declaration on the Reform of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.”

The signatories presented a roadmap for church reform that included the election of a new catholicos. The declaration criticized Karekin II and his close circle for failing to “live and preach according to the principles of the Gospel,” disrupting spiritual life and showing tolerance toward what it described as “glaring facts of moral decay.”

Later that month, Derderian issued a detailed statement explaining his support for the reform. His reasons largely echoed the government’s rhetoric, including accusations of “politicizing the Church by opposing the government’s peace agenda” and “leadership decisions that discredited the church.”

However, in February, Derderian attended a bishops’ assembly in Austria that resulted in a joint statement urging Armenian authorities to “stop the persecution of the Church” and describing any reform movement outside the Church as “unacceptable.”

By signing the statement alongside 24 other high-ranking clergy members, Derderian reaffirmed his “loyalty to the Mother See and the Catholicos.”

The White House meeting therefore brought together senior Armenian clerics and a representative of the Armenian government at a time when relations between Pashinyan’s government and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin remain strained.

In its statement, the Western Diocese acknowledged that the meeting was organized by the Armenian Embassy in Washington. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, however, did not report on the meeting in its public communications, potentially signaling its disapproval of the gathering.