The confrontation between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church is entering a phase in which rhetoric is increasingly being translated into questions of law, institutional authority, and the future governance of one of Armenia's most influential institutions. On September 24, a state-run center under the Prime Minister's Office published a report, commissioned by Pashinyan, alleging a crisis in the Church and proposing ways to address it. Pashinyan subsequently described the Church as having been effectively "seized" by Catholicos Garegin II and his supporters and argued that legislation should be used to broaden the participation of believers in Church governance.
The Mother See rejected the report as unconstitutional and an unlawful intrusion into ecclesiastical affairs. The dispute is particularly sensitive because the boundary between Church and state is already defined, though not without complexity, in Armenian law. The Constitution separates religious organisations from the state while simultaneously recognising the Armenian Apostolic Church's "exclusive mission" in Armenia's spiritual life, national culture and preservation of national identity.
It also provides that relations between the state and the Church may be regulated by law. Armenia's law on religious organisations, meanwhile, says the state should not interfere in the internal affairs of religious organisations operating within the law. Church leaders have increasingly clashed with Pashinyan's government, while the dispute has become entangled with Armenia's deteriorating relationship with Moscow.
In August, reported that Garegin II and six senior clerics had gone on trial amid the widening Church-government confrontation, while noting accusations from Pashinyan's side that the Church functions as a Russian proxy, an allegation the Church rejects. The report, prepared at the Prime Minister's instruction, was published on September 24. "Consequently, laws must be adopted to resolve the situation regarding the seizure of the church," said Nikol Pashinyan.
The Prime Minister added that legislative changes are necessary to end the occupation of the church and ensure the church community's full participation in its administration. "The decision should be made by the church community, not by Ktrich Nersisyan (the secular name of Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians – Ed.). Who becomes a priest should not be determined by KGB agents.
We will make these decisions based on the Constitution. Relations are regulated by law," he stated. The Prime Minister also said that there should be no priests without salaries and that every penny entering the church must be accounted for—specifically, how much money was received and how it was spent.
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