Pashinyan's Attack on the Armenian Church: Dragging the Catholicos to Court
Over the past six years, we have covered one shameful event after another in Armenia. But perhaps nothing compares to what is happening to the Catholicos of All Armenians right now.
In this powerful segment, Hovik frames the government’s prosecution of Catholicos Garegin II as perhaps the most shameful act of the Pashinyan era, surpassing even the mismanagement of the war. The charges stem from the Catholicos’s lawful removal of a bishop from his position after the bishop attempted to undermine the Catholicos at Pashinyan’s direction. Under Armenian ecclesiastical law and tradition, the Catholicos holds complete and final authority over clerical appointments and removals, making the government’s criminal case constitutionally baseless.
What makes this assault particularly striking is its emotional and symbolic weight: the Armenian Apostolic Church is not merely a domestic institution but a pillar of Armenian identity globally. Dragging its leader through court represents an unprecedented violation of a centuries-old separation of church and state. Hovik notes the judge’s hasty recusal, citing a tenuous conflict of interest-an evident acknowledgment that the case has no legal foundation and will damage Armenia’s standing internationally. The move signals Pashinyan’s willingness to weaponize the judiciary against any institution that resists his authority.
The Catholicos has garnered support from diaspora organizations, other Christian leaders, and international bodies, underscoring the case’s reputational cost. Yet Pashinyan presses forward, suggesting either external pressure or ideological determination to consolidate state control. This episode crystallizes a broader pattern of political persecution, selective prosecution, and institutional capture that defines modern Armenia under the current regime.
Transcript
Hovik Manucharyan: And, you know, over the past six years, I think we have covered developments in Armenia. Unfortunately, recording one shameful event after another in Armenia under the leadership of Nikol Pashinyan. I should say de facto leadership because I don't accept him as a leader of Armenia. But perhaps nothing can come close to declaring that Artsakh is Armenia and that's it. And then instigating a horrible war, mismanaging it, causing the deaths of thousands of our young boys, and then simply saying, our stuff was never ours, you know, you're just gaslighting the public. But this week, the sights this week of the Catholicos of All Armenians, the Vehapar, being dragged to court for Activities that are fully within the auspices, within his own authority, his own mandate, which is to defrock a misbehaving priest and to appoint others. It's a shame and it's as great an affront to Armenians, at least emotionally, as anything else that Pashinyan has done. And I mean Armenians across the world, because the Armenian Apostolic Church is not only the church