Civilnet
By Siranush Adamyan
Armenia’s long-running confrontation between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church takes a dramatic new turn. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced he will attend a liturgy this coming Sunday, celebrated by a priest who the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin had just defrocked.
The Mother See earlier that day declared Father Aram Asatryan defrocked by order of Catholicos Karekin II, citing “public statements discrediting the Church,” disobedience to his diocesan bishop, and removal of the Catholicos’s name from prayers during mass — actions that, according to the decree, effectively placed him “outside the Church.” The statement said Asatryan would henceforth be regarded as a layperson under the name Stepan Asatryan.
Hours after the announcement, Asatryan posted on Facebook that he would still celebrate mass at Hovhannavank Monastery. “Dear faithful brothers and sisters, I invite you all to Hovhannavank to participate in the Divine Liturgy. The liturgy will be celebrated by me, your Father Aram,” he wrote, adding, “Unfortunately, I am neither the first nor the last [to face punishment]. But for the sake of truth, our initiative will triumph. God is with us.”
Soon after, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook: “On Sunday, I will attend the Divine Liturgy celebrated by Father Aram Asatryan at Hovhannavank.” Several members of his Civil Contract party quickly followed suit, saying they too would join the service — a rare show of defiance against the Church’s highest authority.
Tensions over clergy arrests
The episode comes amid an escalating campaign against senior clergy. On October 15, the head of the Aragatsotn Diocese, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, and six priests were detained following home searches. Prosecutors said they were investigating alleged coercion of clergy to attend political rallies — a case launched after Father Aram Asatryan’s September TV interview in which he claimed he had been pressured in 2021 to participate in election rallies.
Etchmiadzin has condemned the detentions as a “politically motivated campaign” designed to silence the Church, while government allies have described the cases as necessary steps toward accountability.
A long-brewing confrontation
Relations between Prime Minister Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church have been steadily deteriorating since the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Clergy critical of the government’s conduct during and after the war have faced growing scrutiny, while pro-government media have accused the Church of political meddling.
Tensions reached new heights this month after Armenia’s Investigative Committee opened an unprecedented criminal case that could implicate Catholicos Karekin II himself, based on a leaked phone recording suggesting he pressured clergy to attend anti-government rallies. The Church denounced the probe as “an attack on faith and national unity.”
In June, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan — a major benefactor of Etchmiadzin — was arrested shortly after publicly defending the Catholicos. Around the same time, two archbishops, Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikayel Ajapahyan, were also detained. Ajapahyan was later sentenced to two years in prison over statements prosecutors described as calls to overthrow the government, while Galstanyan remains in custody pending trial.
Pashinyan’s decision to attend a liturgy led by a defrocked priest now marks a direct political and symbolic challenge to the Armenian Apostolic Church — transforming a disciplinary act within the clergy into the latest front in Armenia’s widening struggle between the state and its most powerful religious institution.
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