Pashinian and members his political entourage attended a Mass held at the newly renovated Mother Cathedral in Echmiadzin on the occasion, despite strained relations with the church accused by them of meddling in politics.
One of its senior clergymen, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, led anti-government protests in May and June sparked by Pashinian’s controversial territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. The church’s Supreme Spiritual Council voiced support for Galstanian and his supporters on May 7 as they marched from the northern Tavush province to Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s resignation. The prime minister and his political allies denounced the church and threatened to impose new taxes on it.
On May 28, police tried to physically stop Garegin from visiting the Sardarapat war memorial just before a delayed Pashinian-led ceremony was held there to mark the 106th anniversary of the establishment of the first Armenian republic. The Catholicos and other clergymen accompanying him had to break through police cordons to lay flowers there.
Despite the unprecedented tensions, Garegin chose to invite Pashinian and other senior state officials to the Echmiadzin cathedral’s reconsecration held after its nearly six-year renovation. Former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian as well as other opposition figures were also invited to the ceremony. But they did not show up apparently because of Pashinian’s presence.
“In the course of history, the Armenian Church, with Holy Etchmiadzin at its spiritual center, has repeatedly faced attacks and persecution,” Garegin said during the liturgy. “Yet with invincible faith, it has overcome difficulties and challenges.”
“It is an undeniable historical truth: to battle against Holy Etchmiadzin is to battle against the existence and identity of the Armenians, to strike at the heart of Armenian statehood, and to drain Armenian life of its national and spiritual substance. Any attempt to debase the mission of Holy Etchmiadzin is an attempt to weaken our nation, to undermine the foundations of an independent and sovereign life, of which the Armenian Church is the advocate and defender,” he added in a message seemingly addressed to Armenia’s current leadership.
Garegin also appeared to allude to Pashinian’s controversial unconventional interpretations of the country’s history when he urged Armenians to “keep our history free of falsehood and distortion.”
During another religious ceremony held in Echmiadzin on Saturday, the Catholicos similarly warned that no follower of the Armenian Church must “deny his own history” or “distort his national identity and aspirations.”
Pashinian’s relationship with the church has steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen joined the Armenian opposition in calling for Pashinian’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war. They also blamed Pashinian for Azerbaijan’s September 2023 recapture of Karabakh.
The prime minister and his associates have boycotted Christmas and Easter liturgies led by Garegin for the past three years.