Catholicos of All Armenians must resign - premier 

ArmInfo.  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has once again attacked the Armenian Apostolic Church. On June 9, the RA Prime Minister stated on his Facebook page that Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II had broken his voluntary  vow of celibacy and had a child.

"This is a fact, and if Garegin II tries to deny it, I will prove it  in the necessary form. Accordingly, according to the canon of the  Armenian Apostolic Church, Garegin II cannot be a bishop, an  archbishop, he cannot be elected and cannot be a Catholicos. Ktrich  Nersisyan (Catholicos of All Armenians in the world - ed.) must  liberate the Patriarchate. As a faithful follower of the AAC, as a  person who respects every value, every relic, every image and stone  of our spiritual heritage, I declare that the Armenian Apostolic Holy  Church must have a newly elected Catholicos, whose good behavior will  be tested and confirmed before his election. I call on the faithful  followers of the AAC to unite with love and in a Christian manner  around the agenda of liberating the Patriarchate with love and elect  a truly sacred servant as Catholicos of All Armenians," the RA Prime  Minister wrote. 

For several days in a row, the Armenian authorities have been  attacking the Armenian Apostolic Church and its leader, Catholicos of  All Armenians Garegin II. On May 29, at a government meeting, the  prime minister said that Armenian churches resemble "closets filled  with junk." The next day, he published a harsh post on social media,  in which he used rude language against the hierarchs of the AAC and  accused one of the archbishops of sexual promiscuity. At the same  time, the prime minister demanded that all priests who violated their  vow of celibacy be defrocked. Similar attacks were made by the prime  minister's wife, Anna Hakobyan, who called the patriarch "the main  mafioso" and those who criticized the "defrocking" of churches "the  main pedophiles of the country." These statements provoked a sharp  reaction from the clergy. Amid the scandal, the prime minister  proposed changing the procedure for electing the head of the AAC so  that the state would have a decisive vote in the elections, and  candidates would undergo an ethics check.