Armenia re-elects prime minister in conflict with Catholicos

In messages before the election, Catholicos Karekin II had warned that the Church’s ‘centuries-old canonical order’ was being distorted by ‘persecution and repression’ by the government.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was re-elected in a landslide victory following a closely-watched parliamentary election last week.

Relations between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church deteriorated significantly during Pashinyan’s previous term. His pro-European Civil Contract Party was accused of interfering in the internal affairs of the Church, to which more than 90 per cent of the population belong.

Earlier this year, prosecutors in Yerevan opened a criminal investigation against the Catholicos Karekin II. He was subject to a travel ban, preventing him from attending a meeting of Armenian bishops in Austria in February and the funeral of Georgia’s Patriarch Ilia last month.

Prior to the election on 7 June, the Church had strongly criticised Pashinyan’s programme. Karekin described the government’s “illegal action” as “damaging” for the nation, threatening the “foundations of its value system” and undermining its “spiritual security”.

After casting his own ballot, the Catholicos said: “I made my choice, praying that God will keep the Armenian state unshaken … I also voted so that God’s love and mercy may be with us, building a strong, secure and prosperous country.”

In messages before the election, Karekin had warned that the Church’s “centuries-old canonical order” was being distorted by “persecution and repression”.

Pashinyan’s election platform explicitly called for the removal of the Catholicos and outlined a plan to restructure the Armenian Apostolic Church, with the appointment of an interim leadership and the implementation of new oversight mechanisms traditionally governed by Church authorities.

The prime minister previously accused Church leaders of alienating the faithful and giving “external powers” the opportunity to use it for “hybrid actions against the independence and sovereignty of Armenia”. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin award the Order of Honour of the Russian Federation to the Catholicos in 2022. Karekin’s brother is bishop of an Armenian diocese in Russia.

Legal experts warn that Pashinyan’s proposals would violate the Church’s autonomy and the separation between Church and state.

International Christian Concern reported of the election: “Many Armenian voters found themselves weighing concerns about domestic interference in church affairs against the prospect of increased political dependence on a foreign power with its own history of religious freedom violations.”

This referred to restrictive measures against non-Russian Orthodox religious groups implemented within Russia and other territories in its sphere of influence.

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