“Who is the Catholicos? I don’t know such a person. This man has violated his vow,” Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan told reporters on October 22.

When asked about the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin’s decision to defrock priest Aram Asatryan—thus prohibiting him from conducting liturgies on behalf of the Armenian Apostolic Church—Simonyan replied: “This is an illegal structure. Ktrich Nersisyan (referring to Catholicos Karekin II – ed.) must understand that, as he says, ‘they are approaching our homes,’ and he should not push things to the extreme… He will leave anyway.”

Simonyan added that he will not attend the liturgy to be held at Hovhannavank Monastery, which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is set to attend and will be conducted by the defrocked priest Asatryan.