Pashinyan’s war against the Church, aimed at severing it from the Catholicos, continues in Shirak today. The events in Gyumri exposed the strategy with absolute clarity. Two liturgies were held simultaneously. Clergy of the Shirak Diocese celebrated the canonical liturgy in the Holy Savior Church, filled with worshippers. At the same time, a non canonical liturgy was staged in the Holy Mother of God Cathedral, attended by Pashinyan, Vahagn Khachaturyan, government officials, MPs, and party loyalists.
No priest from the Shirak Diocese agreed to participate in the unauthorized ceremony. They were instructed to omit the name of the Catholicos, a direct violation of liturgical order. Their refusal was an unmistakable rejection of political coercion.
The ceremony was led by Mkrtich Mushadyan of the Armavir Diocese, accompanied by bishops who have aligned themselves with the authorities and placed themselves in open opposition to the Church’s leadership: Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, Bishop Gevorg Saroyan, Bishop Sion Adamyan, and Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan. Their involvement underscored a coordinated effort to construct a parallel hierarchy loyal to the government rather than the Church.
After attending the non canonical liturgy, Alen Simonyan declared that the next liturgy should be held in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Church circles immediately recognized this as preparation for a staged intrusion into the spiritual center of the nation.
None of this was accidental. It is the latest step in Nikol Pashinyan’s sustained campaign to weaken the Armenian Apostolic Church and diminish the authority of the Catholicos. He has publicly demanded the Catholicos’s resignation and has spent years pressuring clergy and elevating compliant figures to fracture ecclesiastical unity. His recent meeting with a group of ten bishops was widely seen as an attempt to cultivate a politically loyal faction. In response, the Mother See has defrocked those who violated protocol and abandoned their vows.
Under these conditions, the Mother See postponed the Bishops Assembly, stating that a proper convocation is impossible amid political pressure and manufactured division.
