Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated during a briefing with journalists that the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church has been usurped, and the faithful people have been left out of its governance. He emphasized that the state will take all legislative and legal measures to restore the tradition of Church governance and remove Garegin II (Ktrich Nersisyan) from office.
According to the Prime Minister, the most important foundation of the Church is the faithful people, not the Catholicos or the bishops. He said that the faithful are effectively deprived of participation in governance, and the traditional structures are not functioning.
"The Church is neither the Catholicos nor the bishops. The Church is the faithful people, and the faithful people have been excluded from the governance of the Church. The tradition of our church governance is parish councils, diocesan councils, the National-Ecclesiastical Assembly, which, despite being established, has not been convened," he said.
Nikol Pashinyan announced that an investigative committee will be established in the National Assembly to study the situation surrounding the Church. After that, legislative amendments are planned.
"Now an investigative committee will be created, and as a result there must be legislative amendments, by which the usurpation of the church must be eliminated, and the faithful must be full participants in the governance of the church," he noted.
The Prime Minister stressed that communities must have a decisive influence in the appointment of priests, and relations between the state and the Church, in accordance with the Constitution, will be regulated by law.
Addressing the tenure of the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II (Ktrich Nersisyan), Nikol Pashinyan declared that he must step down.
"Ktrich Nersisyan must step down. There is no other option, he must leave, and the state will use all levers for that… He is a sacrilegious, church-desecrating, canon-violating person who has usurped the church, and he must step down. As Prime Minister, I will take all possible measures… and not only as Prime Minister, but as a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church," he said.
This statement differs significantly from previous discussions on state-church relations. Pashinyan speaks not of a separate incident or a specific decision, but of the need to revise the entire model of Church governance. And that is already a much more serious matter than an ordinary political statement.
The idea of an investigative committee is also noteworthy. If the National Assembly indeed goes down that path, then during parliamentary hearings, not only the internal governance of the Church but also numerous issues that have unfolded around it in recent years will become public. This means that the matter could go beyond the framework of a single statement.
It is worth following how the Church leadership will react and whether the work of the investigative committee will lead to concrete legislative initiatives or remain only at the level of a political statement.
