Become an OC Media member and receive exclusive access to:
Support independent journalism in Caucasus
Become an OC Media memberAlready a member?
Armenia * Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that in total 16 priests have joined the Church reform he launched along with ten high-ranking priests, including Bishop Gevorg Saroyan. * Separately, Catholicos Karekin II has dismissed Bishop Gevorg Saroyan from his post as Primate of the Diocese of Masyatsotn, citing ‘abuse of office, failure to fulfil the duties incumbent upon the Primate, as well as instances of coercion and pressure exercised against the clergy of the diocese’. In t
Armenia * Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi. Aside from bilateral issues, they also discussed the unblocking of regional infrastructures. Takht-Ravanchi’s visit followed criticism from Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who in December called the Trump Route ‘effectively the same as the Zangezur project’, adding that Tehran was ‘firmly opposed to it’. * Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated th
Armenia * Mikael Mikaelyan, an Armenian skier, has been fined for covering the word Azerbaijan on his uniform during the Italian stage of the Tour de Ski competition. The incident took place on 31 December. The ski suit had Azerbaijan written across the torso as part of a sponsorship agreement signed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. Gagik Sargsyan, the president of the Ski Federation of Armenia, defended the athlete and said the federation was ready to pay the fine imposed on
Armenia * Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is scheduled to lead an anti-Catholicos Karekin II march in Yerevan in the afternoon, following the Christmas liturgy. * The acting head of the Armenian Diocese of Switzerland, Proto-Archimandrite Goossan Aljanian, has joined a ‘church reform’ statement signed by 10 senior clergy members alongside Pashinyan. The statement announced the launch of church ‘reforms’ and renewed demands for the resignation of Karekin II. Shortly after Aljanian’s statement,
