Source: Forum 18, February 6, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials have not responded to questions [about] why Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly called for the removal of the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin, despite the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of religious organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bishop Karekin defrocked for backing Pashinyan\u2019s calls challenged his dismissal in court. When the Church ignored his court-ordered reinstatement, the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation into six bishops and a priest, banning them from leaving Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has liquidated the state and church-funded Shoghakat television channel and ended the Church-run military chaplaincy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Church had criticized Pashinyan\u2019s handling of the 2020 Karabakh war with neighboring Azerbaijan and its aftermath. Catholicos Karekin called on the Prime Minister to resign and for a government of national accord to be formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>. It\u2019s a long one; apparently this conflict has been going on for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See also Britain \u201cmonitoring the situation\u201d with Armenian Church<\/a> (Christian Today).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Forum 18, February 6, 2026 Officials have not responded to questions [about] why Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly called for the removal of the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin, despite the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of religious organizations. A bishop Karekin defrocked for backing Pashinyan\u2019s calls challenged his dismissal in court. When … Continue reading Armenia: Prime Minister Calls for Removal of the Head of the Armenian Church<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14473,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions\/14473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}