Eight of the rebellious bishops and archbishops met with Pashinian last Thursday after issuing a joint statement that accused Garegin of covering up a sex scandal involving another archbishop, who is loyal to him and highly critical of Pashinian. In another statement issued at the weekend and also signed by two other senior clerics, they urged Garegin to “voluntarily retire” to spare the church “unnecessary upheavals.”
Garegin’s entourage and other priests rejected the appeal, saying that its signatories have been either coopted or forced by into submission by Pashinian. Archbishops Mikael Ajapahian and Bagrat Galstanian, who both are vocal critics of Pashinian, condemned them in even stronger terms in a joint statement issued from prison.
“Before our eyes and in our presence, each of [the 10 bishops] had not missed a chance to flatter and cozy up to His Holiness the Patriarch, under whose paternal care they had received the highest titles and positions in the church despite being absolutely unworthy of that, of which their shameful behavior is a telling testimony. If His Holiness made a mistake in anything, it was in fact his trust in them,” read the statement publicized on Monday.
“It is possible and perhaps even necessary to disagree with His Holiness the Patriarch on everything -- something which they have never done in the past 26 years [of Garegin’s rule] and, on the contrary, have sucked up to him -- whereas we have done it many times, subjecting ourselves to the Patriarch's rebuke and discontent,” it said.
Ajapahian and Galstanian went on to urge Garegin to dismiss “the schismatics,” most of whom head various church dioceses. They also said they suspect that the latter “played a role in our imprisonment.”
Galstanian, who led massive anti-government protests in Yerevan last year, and 17 of his supporters were arrested on coup and “terrorism” charges June 25 the day before Pashinian threatened to forcibly remove Garegin from the church’s Echmiadzin headquarters. Ajapahian was arrested and charged on June 27 with calling for violent charge. He was sentenced to two years in prison on October 3. Both archbishops, who are kept in the same prison cell, reject the accusations as politically motivated.
Armenia - Senior clergymen attend a Sunday mass at the Echmiadzin cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church, July 27, 2025.
Meanwhile, the Mother See announced later on Monday that Garegin has decided to convene on December 10 an emergency meeting of bishops that will “examine the latest developments surrounding the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.” The ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians around the world belong, has at least 55 bishops and archbishops.
It was not immediately clear whether the ten clergymen seeking Garegin’s resignation will attend the gathering. Their unprecedented revolt was supposedly sparked by a sexually explicit video posted by a government-linked account on the Telegram social media platform in early November. It purportedly featured Archbishop Arshak Khachatrian, the head of the church’s Mother See Chancellery close to Garegin.
The dissident bishops accused the Catholicos last week of “trying at all costs to cover up Arshak's sacrilegious act” by torpedoing an internal inquiry launched after the release of the footage. The Mother See strongly denied the accusations.
Khachatrian on Monday again dismissed the video as fake. Speaking at a news conference, he said he still has no plans to resign or ask Garegin to suspend him.
The archbishop also claimed that “various officials” from Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) tried in vain to bully and blackmail him into taking “certain actions” before the scandal. He did not elaborate.