The campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church has not stopped. It is not necessary that the campaign is carried out through visible actions, the position of today’s authorities against the church has been expressed both publicly and latently, in a disguised way, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, told a press conference Monday.

“After 2018, a theory circulated that the subject of [Armenian Apostolic] Church history should be removed from schools. It is clear that this move was directed against the church, against the national values of the church. Secondly, in the preceding period, we had the practice when there was charitable programs commission under the government, where we [i.e., the Armenian Apostolic Church] applied, our various programs were exempted from taxes. In this domain as well, many difficulties were created. Thirdly, our bishops had diplomatic passports; it was highly questionable that those diplomatic passports were collected. Next were the issues related to the Catholicos’ escort vehicle.

Such certain miserable issues with which they [i.e. the Armenian authorities] constantly attempted to make it clear that the church must supposedly know its place.

These became much more aggressive in recent times. This was more pronounced after 2020, when a request from the Catholicos [of All Armenians Karekin II] was addressed to the prime minister [of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan] that he should leave office.

Now, what deep processes followed or preceded this, or whether the anti-church actions carried out by the authorities also have a geopolitical background. I find it difficult to say it, but some coincidences raise deep suspicions.

For example, it is highly questionable that [Azerbaijani spiritual leader] Pashazadeh’s statement is followed by an attack from the country’s prime minister, or the coincidence of speeches by the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister Armenia. Can these create certain impressions among people? I think yes,” Archbishop Khachatryan said.

He noted that against the backdrop of total attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church, illegal and unconstitutional attacks, deep silence is maintained by foreign embassies. “These attacks against the church, the seizure of the church—at least it is obvious that the church is the owner of Hovhannavank Monastery. Hovhannavank is occupied, and the country’s leader, who has no such authority, directly interferes with the church’s autonomy, decides himself who should be the Catholicos, by what procedures.

He reserves himself the right to set some expertise regarding the integrity of [Armenian] churchmen and makes assessments of their character. People have very serious doubts about the character of churchmen, and he has entered the field of evaluating the character of churchmen,” Archbishop Khachatryan said.

“Now we have a situation where we have defrocked the priest of Hovhannavank, but with the direct visible support of the authorities, the priest continues to remain in Hovhannavank as an acting official. All the bodies—prosecutor’s office, police—that are obliged to protect a person’s property rights refuse to do so for various absurd reasons. Our lawyers have applied for the area to be vacated, but up to this moment, that area has not been vacated.

Apart from words and its own instruments, the church does not have more significant defensive mechanisms, I mean law enforcement structures, that could apply coercion to protect its rights. Even to exercise self-defense, people could simply be taken and arrested,” Archbishop Khachatryan said.

And regarding applying anathema, he noted that this is done at the level of the Catholicos. “These topics have been discussed in various conversations, but we have not yet addressed such questions on the official agenda,” the Mother See chancellor emphasized.