Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met a group of senior bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, as tensions escalated over a contentious statement circulated by pro-government media and attributed to more than a dozen high-ranking clerics.
According to the government, the bishops who attended the meeting on Thursday included Abraham Mkrtchyan, Arakel Karamyan, Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, Anushavan Jamkochyan, Vrtanes Abrahamyan, Navasard Kchoyan, Arakel Tigranyan, and Gevorg Saroyan.
During the discussions, Pashinyan thanked them for what he described as their ‘principled stance’, linking their views to broader concerns over values, the role of the Church and the state’s moral foundations.
The meeting came hours after outlets close to the ruling Civil Contract party circulated an image of a lengthy declaration, reportedly signed by around ten bishops and archbishops. The text alleged that a forensic examination had confirmed the authenticity of intimate videos said to feature Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, and accused Catholicos Karekin II of attempting to cover up the scandal. The statement urged clergy and believers to join efforts to ‘cleanse’ the Mother See.
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None of the bishops said to have signed the statement have publicly confirmed it. The Mother See dismissed the document as a text written ‘with distortions’, insisting that several claims ‘do not correspond to reality’ and that clarifications would follow once internal discussions were complete.
Some of the clerics whose names appear on the document have distanced themselves from it. The head of the German Diocese, Serovbe Isakhanyan, said he was unaware of the statement and stressed that he was not demanding the Catholicos’ resignation.
Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan himself said he could not verify the authenticity of either the statement or the alleged forensic examination, noting that he had received no official information. He suggested the controversy was linked to his outspoken criticism of the government, adding that he had no intention of stepping down.
Despite the lack of confirmation, Pashinyan welcomed the statement earlier on Thursday, saying it showed that ‘there are clergy who are committed to the Church’s spiritual mission’. He said he had invited the bishops to hear their views in more detail.The controversy has also raised questions about whether the authorities intend to use internal Church disputes to push for leadership changes. Several of the bishops listed in the disputed statement have themselves been associated with past scandals, leading critics to question the government’s selective embrace of clerics. The head of Yerevan diocese Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, for example, faced several criminal charges between 2022 and 2023 for fraud and money laundering.
