Catholicos of lies When a shepherd leads to the abyss

It comes as no surprise anymore that the Catholicos of All Armenians, Garegin II, is ready to seize any opportunity to spread falsehoods and nonsense about Azerbaijan and Türkiye. In this regard, he is a true successor to previous Armenian catholicoi who pushed their own people towards committing crimes against their neighbours. Garegin II has once again taken up this role—this time at an international conference titled "Religious Freedom: Preserving the Armenian Spiritual, Cultural, and Historical Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh", organised by the World Council of Churches and the Protestant Church of Switzerland.

The very title of this event is, to put it mildly, provocative. It is quite clear that clerics were brought together solely to voice slanderous and deceitful accusations against a state whose 20% of territory had been under Armenian occupation for over a quarter of a century. The Catholicos of All Armenians eagerly seized this opportunity, shamelessly and without conscience, claiming that "as a result of the military actions in 2020 and 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh was occupied and the entire Armenian population was expelled."

In essence, he invited all those present at the conference to believe that Azerbaijan had somehow “occupied” its own sovereign territory. This, despite the fact that not a single country in the world has ever recognised the so-called "NKR". Garegin II knows this perfectly well—just as he is well aware of the four United Nations Security Council resolutions that clearly demanded the withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

He is also well aware that on October 6, 2022, Azerbaijan and Armenia reaffirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, under which both countries recognise each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Nevertheless, the Catholicos continues to shamelessly spread falsehoods about some alleged “occupation” by Azerbaijan of its own land.

What’s more, at this event, he voiced an outrageous and utterly absurd claim that Azerbaijan is supposedly “holding the leaders and civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh hostage.”

This is how the spiritual leader of all Armenians refers to the former heads of the Karabakh junta—individuals accused of grave crimes against Azerbaijan and its citizens, many of whom, during court proceedings, have effectively admitted that these crimes were committed with the knowledge and blessing of both past and present leaders of Armenia.

Live witnesses of these acts of hatred and violence by Armenian occupiers against peaceful Azerbaijani civilians are now testifying in court in Baku. Names, surnames, details—all have been presented to the court. So, who must one be to call the former leaders of the Karabakh junta “hostages” after all this? Exactly—a Catholicos of All Armenians, and the name is of no importance whatsoever.

After all, Vazgen I, though unofficially, quickly became one of the figureheads of the Armenian Karabakh movement. On February 25, 1988, he sent an open letter to Mikhail Gorbachev demanding the “unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.” Funds were even collected through the Armenian Church at the time to bribe the first and last President of the USSR and his wife, Raisa.

In the years that followed, the torch of spiritual leadership in Armenian nationalism was passed from Vazgen I to Garegin II.

At the recent international academic conference held in Baku on the theme “Islamophobia: Unveiling Bias, Shattering Stigmas,” concrete evidence was presented of the horrific crimes committed by Armenian vandals on Azerbaijani soil. The Director General of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), Professor Mahmut Erol Kılıç, stated:
“They destroyed temples, mosques, and historical monuments. Even today, they do not allow the UNESCO mission to inspect the condition of Azerbaijani monuments located in Armenia.”

According to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture, over 60 mosques were destroyed and desecrated in the formerly occupied territories. This is one of the many crimes that the Armenian Apostolic Church had effectively blessed its followers to commit.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that even Armenian blogger Roman Bagdasaryan has repeatedly voiced harsh criticism of the Catholicos and his inner circle. In one of his video messages, he accused Archbishop Yezras—head of the Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and brother of Catholicos Garegin II—of establishing a mafia-style structure. According to Bagdasaryan, racketeering was carried out under the guise of church activities on Russian territory.

He paid particular attention to the construction of the Armenian church complex in the Russian capital, which dragged on for nearly 20 years. Bagdasaryan claimed this delay was intentional, aimed at embezzling funds collected from the Armenian diaspora. He further noted that the church was only completed in 2013 after Moscow authorities intervened and expressed their dissatisfaction with the prolonged construction timeline.

Bagdasaryan also criticised the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) for its active involvement in the country’s political life, rightly arguing that the Church, instead of fulfilling its spiritual mission, interferes in state affairs—supporting particular political forces and fuelling nationalist and revanchist sentiments. In his view, this only deepens Armenia’s internal instability and obstructs prospects for peace in the region.

It is hard to disagree with him. The AAC has been—and continues to be—an institution that sows ethnic and religious animosity, spreads falsehoods, nonsense, and myths, and drives Armenia ever closer to the edge of an abyss. The country now stands at that very brink, in no small part due to the actions of both former and current Catholicoi of All Armenians.

And only the citizens of Armenia themselves can answer the question: do they truly wish to plunge into that abyss? Azerbaijan, for its part, has long articulated its peaceful regional agenda.