“There is no attack by me against the Armenian Apostolic Church,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press briefing Thursday in connection with the ongoing processes around the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“Nowhere in the documents of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church is it written that the person holding the office of Catholicos and the [Armenian Apostolic] Church are identical. Nowhere is it said that a bishop and the [Armenian Apostolic] Church are identical.

In the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church, there have been many cases when, for example, the Catholicos has resigned. Has the [Armenian Apostolic] Church collapsed as a consequence of that? No, [it] has not collapsed,” the Armenian PM said.

According to him, there have been cases in Armenia when a bishop was subjected to criminal prosecution and spent several years in prison.