Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has said that he would meet Catholicos Karekin II, whom he considers illegitimate, to discuss the government\u2019s Church reform agenda if the Church leader accepts that agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Karekin II or Ktrij Nersisyan accepts the reform agenda of the Armenian Apostolic Church, I solemnly declare from this podium that I will sit down and discuss that agenda with him with the utmost respect,\u201d Pashinyan said in parliament, referring to the Church leader by his secular name. \u201cI have never said that there are [insiders] and [outsiders], some of whom may observe the rules of conduct while others may not. The agenda for reforming the Armenian Apostolic Church is clearly formulated: rules of conduct and clear mechanisms for ensuring compliance with those rules.How can we tolerate it when our holiest of holies is afflicted? Let us put everything else aside: whether you want to call him the Catholicos, Karekin II, or Ktrij Nersisyan, beyond all that, there are facts that every citizen of the Republic of Armenia and every believer knows,\u201d Pashinyan said, referring to allegations that Karekin II has fathered a child in violation of his vow of celibacy and should therefore step down.In response to Strong Armenia faction leader MP Narek Karapetyan\u2019s statement that 97% of Armenian citizens trust the Church, Pashinyan said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opposition representative says that 97% of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia believe in the Church. Of course they do. That is precisely where the problem lies: 97% of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia believe, while the head of the Church does not believe in God at all, has no spiritual life, has renounced his covenant with God, and this breach of the covenant has been imposed on all of us. I am not prepared to bear responsibility for that breach of the covenant,\u201d Pashinyan said.<\/p>\n
The Pashinyan administration\u2019s 2026\u20132031 program includes an agenda for reforming the Armenian Apostolic Church, including the removal of its current head, Catholicos Karekin II, from office and the holding of new elections for the Catholicos of All Armenians.Pashinyan and other members of his administration have repeatedly accused Karekin II of illegitimately holding office and called on him to step down. He has so far refused to do so and denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has said that he would meet Catholicos Karekin II, whom he considers illegitimate, to discuss the government\u2019s Church reform agenda if the Church leader accepts that agenda. \u201cIf Karekin II or Ktrij Nersisyan accepts the reform agenda of the Armenian Apostolic Church, I solemnly declare from this podium that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5203,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions\/5203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpc.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}