By Benoit Lannoo
Yerevan | 8 August 2026 (IDN)
Do you remember the Investiture Controversy, when medieval emperors tried to take over the pope’s episcopal appointments? Or the difficult issue of the appointment of bishops in the People’s Republic of China? Well, although Armenia is considered a democratic state in Western chancelleries, respectful of the rule of law, an unprecedented Church-State conflict is currently raging.
Yesterday, ‘His Holiness Garegin II, Patriarch of Etchmiadzin and Catholicos of All Armenians’, together with six other higher clerics, had to appear before a court of first instance in the provincial capital of Armavir because earlier this year he withdrew the episcopal title of Gevorg Saroyan, former primate of the diocese of Masyatsotn, and brought Saroyan later even back to the lay state, and the Catholicos refuses to reverse his decision. ‘Abuse of power’, is the accusation.
Imagine what would happen if Pope Leo XIV were cited to appear before a lower court in Los Angeles because the Trump Administration disagrees with a bishop’s appointment over there…
Last weekend, the Parliament in the capital Yerevan met for the first time after the elections, without inviting Garegin II to bless the new legislature, as is the custom. That was a première too, it had never happened since independence of Armenia in the early nineties of the last century.
Although the country was very secularized in Soviet times, the Armenian Apostolic Church (to which officially 97.5 percent of the population belongs) has always been a pillar to the new republic. The Catholicos of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin always supported whoever was in charge in Yerevan, and vice versa. This was even the case after Nikol Pashinyan became prime minister during the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in 2018, with promises for less authoritarianism, less corruption, more democracy, and a stronger rule of law.
The turning point, however, was the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh in the autumn of 2023, when neighbouring Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed the enclave on its territory of all that was Armenian. The Armenians call that enclave Artsakh.
The loss of Artsakh is a trauma in Armenian society. It has been a cradle of Armenian-Christian civilization for centuries. Many Armenians continue to dream of and plead for a return to Artsakh. International law bodies also issue arrest or resolutions for the return of the Artsakhtsis to their homeland. But the Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev, who has put Armenophobia at the centre of his national rhetorics, will undoubtedly never allow that.
So, Pashinyan took a turn: where just before the 44-day war in 2020 he publicly said that ‘Karabakh is ours, period’, he now states that ‘Karabakh is no longer a source of contention’. And because Russian President Vladimir Putin – despite promises at the 2020 ceasefire – did not intervene in 2023 when Aliyev cut Artsakh off from the outside world for nine months, attacked it again in September 2023, and all Armenians ran away, Pashinyan is now looking for new allies: the West, but also former enemies Azerbaijan and Türkiye.
It struck me already last summer: no matter how passionately some Armenians react to Pashinyan’s bend, ‘Armen with the cap’ or ‘Siranush the working mother’ in the streets of Yerevan are not always showing their concern anymore. The political opposition to Pashinyan is hopelessly divided, and the average Armenian does not care about politics anymore.
An opposition leader told me few days ago that the opposition did not join forces for fear that Pashinyan would decapitate their movement, by throwing their common figurehead behind bars. It is true that opposition leaders such as Gagik Tsarukyan of Prosperous Armenia’ or Samvel Karapetyan of Strong Armenia are now in jail on dubious accusations.
Yet, before the elections of June 7, even a blind donkey could not ignore that that only a united opposition could threaten strongman Pashinyan.
The only force in Armenian society that openly does not accept the loss of Artsakh, is the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Garegin II never makes overt political statements. But the one thing that the oppositional parties have in common is their support for the Church, and a desire to regain Artsakh.
Some clerics have made that last wish explicit, such as archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the primate of the northern diocese of Tavush. He organized a protest march in Yerevan in 2024. His movement, ‘Tavush for the homeland’, even suggested that Galstanyan could become a candidate for prime minister.
Such a suggestion was enough for Pashinyan to have the archbishop arrested in June 2025 on charges of preparing a coup. Only few days before the elections beginning of June 2026, Galstanyan was allowed to leave prison to await trial under house arrest. Two other bishops and many priests underwent similar treatment.
Without Garegin II speaking out openly, the Church became the main force of opposition to Pashinyan’s Karabakh turn.
Pashinyan’s rapprochement with Azerbaijan and Türkiye led to the surprise announcement at the White House exactly one year ago, on August 8, 2025, that Donald Trump had brokered peace between two countries whose names the American President could not even remember or pronounce. That Memorandum of understanding – in fact, a business deal on a trade corridor between Azerbaijan and Türkiye on Armenian territory, the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (Tripp) – has already been approved by Pashinyan’s government.
But although we are the 8th of August today, there is no protest demonstration anywhere in Armenia. Yes, Armenia is giving up sovereignty. Yes, there are still more than twenty leaders of Artsakh after show trials in filthy cells in Baku. Yes, Aliyev demands any reference to Karabakh to be removed from the Armenian constitution.
No ‘Armen with the cap’ or ‘Siranush the working mother’ are happy with it, but they all try not to lose any sleep over it. Only the Armenian Apostolic Church does not give in.
And so, Pashinyan and his wife Anna Hakobyan, started a real smear campaign via Facebook against the Catholicos, Garegin II. In doing so, they gratefully made use of the rumour that the Church leader does not take his celibacy obligation very seriously and even had an illegitimate son. Behind-the-scenes criticism about the Church leader’s luxurious lifestyle is not new, but no one ever made an issue of it. For a year, Pashinyan and Co. have been openly calling for the deposition of the Catholicos.
Last year, it seemed for a while that they were winning their battle. A dozen bishops distanced themselves from Garegin II. However, the dissidence did not last for very long. In February this year, the Catholicos managed to close ranks in the Austrian abbey of Sankt Pölten – where he could not even travel himself because he was forbidden to leave Armenia. But one bishop did not give in, and so Garegin II threw him out, reason to be cited in court yesterday.
And the latest news is that judge Hakob Manukyan in Armavir recused himself. The short verdict he pronounced yesterday is remarkable, since the judge argues that everyone knows that he has been baptized into the Armenian Apostolic Church, and that it is therefore impossible for him to administer justice without prejudice in a case involving the spiritual leader of that Church. I doubt that another judge can be found in Armavir who has not been baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church. It remains to be seen whether the national prosecutor, Anna Vardapetyan, will now continue with the procedure or not. She eats out the palm of Prime Minister Pashinyan’s hand she is now undoubtedly looking for a way to add a next episode to this Armenian investiture controversy.
*Benoit Lannoo is Church historian with expertise in Eastern Churches