Pashinian announced his plans as he kept pressuring Garegin to step down despite what looked like a growing backlash from opposition groups, public figures critical of the Armenian government and ordinary followers of the church.
Pashinian openly demanded the resignation on Monday, accusing the Catholicos of breaching a vow of celibacy. His detractors claim that the unprecedented campaign is coordinated with Azerbaijan, which is incensed by the Armenian Church’s continuing support for Nagorno-Karabakh’s displaced population and strong opposition to Pashinian’s unilateral concessions to Baku.
In a Facebook post, Pashinian called for “practical steps” to remove Garegin from the Mother See in Echmiadzin and organize the election of a new Catholicos. He said he will appoint ten members of a “coordinating group” tasked with doing that.
Opposition leaders, other government critics and legal experts called the move unconstitutional. They argued that under the Armenian constitution, the church is separated from the state and itself decides its structure and runs its internal affairs. In particular, the Catholicos is elected by the National Ecclesiastical Assembly of delegates chosen by the church dioceses in and outside Armenia without any government interference.
Pashinian’s announcement raised more opposition fears of a government attempt to forcibly seize the headquarters of the ancient church to which the vast majority of Armenians belong. Some opposition forces renewed their calls for supporters to be ready to rally there in support of Garegin. Members of one fringe group, Hayakve, were already holding an around-the-clock vigils at the Mother See on Tuesday.
“We will not allow anyone to make encroachments on our church. Let nobody think that they can go after the church,” Gagik Hovannisian, the head of Hayakve’s regional chapter, said in a video message recorded there.
Other opposition figures, among them the leaders of some mainstream parties, urged supporters to gather at Yerevan’s nearby Zvartnots airport at midnight to greet and reaffirm support for Garegin, who was scheduled to return from a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
Another opposition leader, former President Serzh Sarkisian, described Pashinian’s campaign as a “disgrace” and “unacceptable discourse” when he spoke to reporters.
When asked what concrete action his Republican Party of Armenia is ready to take in support of the embattled Catholicos, Sarkisian said: “We will follow the exhortations and position of His Holiness the Patriarch on this issue.”
While decrying Pashinian’s “shameful” attacks on Garegin and other senior clerics, the church has so far been careful not to excommunicate the prime minister or urge antigovernment gatherings. More of its worldwide dioceses issued on Tuesday statements in support of Garegin.
“We are experiencing discomfort that such a situation has arisen, but there is no panic, no atmosphere of fear. God is with us all,” Archbishop Arshak Khachatrian, the head of the Mother See Chancellery, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Pashinian’s relationship with the Armenian Church has increasingly deteriorated in recent years and especially since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen have joined the Armenian opposition in blaming Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war and Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh in 2023. The premier has accused them of meddling in politics.
Pashinian began attacking the top clearly on a daily basis about two weeks ago following Azerbaijani officials’ renewed criticism of the Armenian Church. Garegin addressed late last month an international conference in Switzerland on the preservation of Karabakh’s Armenian religious and cultural heritage. He again accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Karabakh and illegally occupying Armenian border areas. He also denounced the ongoing “sham trials” of eight former Karabakh leaders captured during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive.
By contrast, Pashinian and other Armenian officials now refrain from openly condemning Baku’s actions in their public statements.