Nikol Pashinyan’s public statements and actions concerning the internal governance of the Armenian Apostolic Church raise a direct question of legality concerning the limits of state power.
Article 6, Part 1 of the Constitution of Armenia provides that state and local self-government bodies and officials may carry out only those actions for which they are empowered by the Constitution or by law. Any exercise of authority outside this mandate is unlawful.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is an autonomous religious institution governed by canon law and its own statutes, and no constitutional or statutory provision authorizes the executive branch to determine ecclesiastical legitimacy, invalidate church decisions, or recognize or dismiss church officeholders. Any intervention in church governance therefore lies outside the scope of state authority.
When a state official declares ecclesiastical decisions null and void or publicly affirms or denies the legitimacy of church leadership, he acts without authority and negates the limitation imposed by Article 6, resulting in its factual suspension.
Article 420 of the Criminal Code defines the overthrow of the constitutional order as the factual suspension of the operation of constitutional norms set out in Articles 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the Constitution, as well as Article 5, Article 6 Part 1, or Article 7.
This issue was made explicit by Pashinyan’s recently published statement in which he declared that Ktrij Nersisyan is not the Catholicos of All Armenians, that decisions taken by him in that capacity “have no value for us and are null and void,” and that Bishop Gevorg Saroyan remains the Primate of the Masis Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.
Such declarations, when issued publicly by the head of government, constitute acts of state authority capable of producing legal and administrative consequences. Speech in this setting constitutes the exercise of power.
A sitting state official publicly invalidating ecclesiastical authority and affirming church appointments is therefore exercising authority where none exists, directly violating Armenia’s Constitution and falls within the scope of the Criminal Code.
