The leader of the movement Tavush for the Motherland, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan has said that he will retain his religious title if his followers manage to oust the current Armenian government and make the cleric the head of an interim government

Galstanyan said earlier that the interim government would be tasked with stopping the “destruction of our homeland” and holding “pre-term or regular elections.”

He said he has therefore asked the supreme head of the church, Catholicos Garegin II, to “freeze my spiritual service.”

“I am no longer in the Tavush diocese, but I continue to be an archbishop. This is my rank,” said Galstanyan on Monday, May 27.