Pashinyan’s government will publish within a month a report on an alleged “crisis” in the Armenian Apostolic Church as part of his push to remove the Catholicos and reshape the Church’s leadership and governance.
“I will propose creating an investigative commission in the National Assembly, examining all the facts and, as a result, adopting legislative amendments,” Pashinyan said.
Relations with the Church deteriorated after the 2020 Artsakh War, when Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II called for Pashinyan’s resignation, and worsened as senior clergy criticized his policies on Artsakh, Azerbaijan and territorial concessions. In 2025, Pashinyan began publicly targeting the Catholicos over allegations that he had violated his vow of celibacy, stopped using his ecclesiastical title and called for his removal, later proposing interim leadership, a rewritten Church charter and the election of a new Catholicos.
The pressure soon extended beyond the Catholicos. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan was arrested with supporters and charged in an alleged plot to seize power, while Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was detained days later. Church benefactor Samvel Karapetyan was arrested shortly after defending the Church and charged over alleged calls to seize power. Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan and other clergy were also detained, while others have faced prosecution, house arrest and travel bans.
By 2026, six bishops and a priest were facing criminal proceedings linked to an internal Church dispute. Travel bans prevented senior clergy from attending an Episcopal Assembly abroad, while the Catholicos was barred from leaving Armenia, preventing him from attending Georgian Patriarch Ilia II’s funeral.
Pashinyan has meanwhile accused senior clergy of serving political or foreign interests, portrayed the hierarchy as part of a “party of war” and a potential channel for “hybrid warfare,” and attacked priests for praying for the preservation of the Republic of Artsakh, calling it “war propaganda.”
The Church “reform” agenda is now formally included in Pashinyan’s 2026–2031 program and his latest proposal would bring Parliament directly into the process.
