I believe that Ktrich Nersisyan and his group are controlled by the channel and logic of an agent of the State Security Committee; I have never hidden this. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a press briefing at the government building Thursday—and addressing the question of whether it is possible that the reason for the campaign against the Armenian clergy is that they spoke about Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

"Those wounds in the spiritual realm make people vulnerable, so that they can easily recruit and use them as they want. This is a matter of state security. When the prime minister of the country declares that we must stop the Karabakh movement, there cannot be an [Armenian] official who will continue the Karabakh movement. I went to the liturgy that day [in a church] and ‘Artsakh Republic’ is heard from the liturgy. What does that mean? It means a call for war; it means nothing else. That is why we say that Ktrich Nersisyan [i.e. the birth name of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II] and his group have assumed the leadership of the party of war. There should not be such a thing,” the Armenian PM declared.