By Arshaluys Barseghyan

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, who previously called for Catholicos Karekin II to step down and backed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s church reform agenda aimed at ousting the Catholicos, has appeared to turn on Pashinyan by signing a statement urging Armenian authorities to ‘stop the persecution of the Church’.

The statement was issued on Thursday evening as one of the outcomes of the bishops’ gathering held in Austria on 16–19 February. Initially convened as a bishops’ synod, the meeting lowered its status in the face of the absence of Karekin II.

Ahead of the meeting, Armenian authorities barred the catholicos from leaving the country as part of a criminal case opened in January, with Karekin II facing investigations since 14 February.

The announcement of the investigation came a day after Pashinyan accused the Church of seeking to remove the Catholicosate from Armenia by holding the bishops’ synod in Austria.

‘I will not allow that. If additional measures are required, they will be taken’, Pashinyan said at the time.

Following their gathering, the bishops expressed ‘deep concern’ over the ongoing confrontation between the Church and the Armenian government, describing it as an ‘undesirable’ and a ‘perilous situation’.

They urged Armenian authorities to ‘stop the persecution of the Church and respect its centuries-enshrined sovereignty and autonomy’ and to ‘put an end to the repression of clergy’ and Karekin II, which was ‘based on fabricated charges and slander’.

The statement also urged the release of detained clergy and those ‘who have spoken out in defence of the Church’, an apparent reference to Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who is currently under house arrest.

Members of the gathering further called on authorities to act in accordance with the Armenian constitution and legislations and to resolve existing issues ‘in a spirit of dialogue, without preconditions, refraining from futile ultimatum-driven rhetoric’.

The statement appears to be an allusion to Pashinyan’s efforts to challenge Karekin II’s leadership.

The attendees of the gathering also addressed the ‘eight misguided’ high-ranking clergies, urging them to ‘act with awareness of their vow of loyalty’ to the Mother See and the Catholicos.

Ten senior priests had previously called on Karekin II to resign in November 2025 and, alongside Pashinyan, signed his church reform agenda in January.

Among those 10 priests were Bishop Gevorg Saroyan, whom the Church defrocked in January, and Archbishop Derderian.

Derderian is the prime of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America, one of the largest dioceses in the diaspora

By signing the adopted statement along with 24 other high-ranking clergy members, Derderian ‘reaffirm[ed] his loyalty to the Mother See and the Catholicos’.

The statement deemed any reform movement outside of the Church to be ‘unacceptable’. Derderian was previously declared as a member of the Coordinating Council, created as part of Pashinyan’s church reform agenda launched in January, tasked with overseeing the organisational aspects of the reform process.

He had previously been among the senior priests to issue a statement calling for Karekin II to ‘voluntarily go on leave’ amid the rift between the state and the Church.