Armenian PM accuses Catholicos Karekin II of hypocrisy, corruption

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has launched a scathing attack on Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, accusing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church of moral corruption and hypocrisy.

Pashinyan announced that public prayers would continue in Hovhannavank monastery, followed by a service in Etchmiadzin, despite condemnation from the Church leadership, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

“Our prayers in Hovhannavank were labeled a desecration by Ktrich Nersisyan (Karekin II),” Pashinyan said in a live social media broadcast. ““But the true act of desecration lies not in that, but in the fact that the individual occupying the Catholicosal throne has violated his vow of celibacy and, according to certain accounts, has fathered a child — or perhaps even children.”

The Prime Minister further accused the Catholicos of transforming the Church into a commercial enterprise.

“The real disgrace,” Pashinyan continued, “is that the Catholicos of Cilicia has led Armenia’s spiritual life into a dead end, turning the Church’s mission into one of export, import, money, money protection, buying, and selling.”

Pashinyan concluded his remarks with an especially harsh rebuke:

“The disgrace is that, in the status of Catholicos, we have a man who does not believe in God.”

The controversy follows Pashinyan’s attendance at a Holy Liturgy in Hovhannavank on October 26, celebrated by Father Aram Asatryan, a priest defrocked by Karekin II.

In response, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin issued a statement on October 30, condemning the events at Hovhannavank as an act of “desecration” carried out under government patronage. The Church vowed to pursue all legal means to restore its rights over the monastery. 

By Vafa Guliyeva