Pashinyan calls for election of new Catholicos

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan criticized Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan in a Facebook post, saying the former leader “must of course stand beside a fellow anti-people forger and fraud.”

He wrote: “Levon Ter-Petrosyan is the founding figure of election fraud practices in the Republic of Armenia, and naturally he sides with another anti-people forger and deception.”

Ter-Petrosyan had visited the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin the previous day and held a private meeting with Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II. According to the Mother See, the former president “expressed full support for His Holiness while firmly condemning the unconstitutional encroachments by the Armenian authorities against the 1700-year-old Armenian Church.”

In a separate Facebook post, Pashinyan stated that “the Church too must be returned to the people,” as was done with the state.

In a June 9 morning post, Pashinyan declared that “the Armenian Apostolic Church must have a newly elected Catholicos,” urging followers to unite around the goal of “peacefully and Christianly liberating the Mother See and electing a truly holy cleric as the next Catholicos.”

He accused Catholicos Karekin II of violating his monastic vow, claiming he has a child, and said: “This is a fact. If Karekin II denies it, I will prove it in the appropriate format.”

Pashinyan continued: “According to the Canons of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin II could not have been a bishop, archbishop, or elected as Catholicos. Nersisyan must vacate the Mother See.”

He concluded, “As a faithful follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church and someone who cherishes every value, relic, image, and stone of our spiritual heritage, I assert: the Church must have a new Catholicos whose integrity is vetted and confirmed prior to election.”

Pashinyan’s Facebook posts followed clergy criticism over his earlier statement comparing churches to storage rooms. In the posts, he used insulting language against clerics. His wife Anna Hakobyan also joined, posting similarly offensive remarks. Pashinyan argued that the state must play a central role in the election of the Catholicos. In another post, he questioned whether Catholicos Karekin II has upheld his vow of celibacy, stating that if he has a child, he cannot be the Catholicos or a celibate priest.

The Mother See responded by condemning the remarks, saying such actions “serve the interests of external anti-Armenian forces and are partially aligned with the Azerbaijani propaganda machine’s slanders and false accusations against the Armenian people and the Church.”