Pashinyan says Catholicos Karekin II poses a national security threat

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II poses a national security threat and should step down.

Pashinyan, responding to reporters’ questions about reported visits by Armenia’s National Security Service to clergy members, dismissed media claims that priests were instructed not to mention the Catholicos’ name during liturgies attended by the prime minister.

He said the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church was harming the institution.
"Ktrich Nersisyan must go. There are no other options. We will follow a path without upheavals, but he must go, and neither senior lieutenants nor colonel-generals of foreign intelligence services will help him," Pashinyan said.

The prime minister said public debate around the Church was “healthy” and that democratic societies should not avoid open discussion.

Pashinyan added that he did not want a Catholicos “obedient to the prime minister,” but also found it unacceptable for the Church leader to be “under the influence of external structures.”

He dismissed talk of compromising materials, saying "Ktrich Nersisyan and his brother are walking kompromats," calling the Catholicos’ brother a “former KGB agent.”