On September 24, 2026, the Armenian Prime Minister’s Office published a 74-page report alleging a severe internal crisis within the Armenian Apostolic Church, escalating the intense standoff between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s administration and the church leadership.

According to the government, the report’s publication stems directly from the official Government Program for 2026–2031 and was conducted under the explicit instruction of Pashinyan.

The publication follows Pashinyan’s recent calls for a parliamentary investigation into church governance and ongoing efforts by his administration to pressure the church’s head, Catholicos Karekin II, to step down.

Authors of the report, On the Crisis That Has Arisen in the Church as a Result of the Activities of the De Facto Head of the AAC and a Number of High-Ranking Clergymen, and Ways to Resolve It, claim it relies strictly on widely known, publicly available open sources and is backed by more than 250 citations and references.

The report documents sixteen specific findings that the government argues manifest a profound systemic crisis within the church’s high command.

Key findings include:

• Integrity and Celibacy: Alleged violations of the vow of celibacy and a perceived impunity for breaches of clerical integrity.
• Governance and Nepotism: “Clan-based” church governance and ordinations allegedly fast-tracked based on kinship and family ties rather than merit.
• Financial Mismanagement: Financial opacity and the non-purpose or private use of valuable Church-owned properties.
• Internal Persecution: The arbitrary persecution, silencing, and defrocking of dissenting or low-ranking clergy members.
• Politicization: What the state calls the “politicization of the Holy Altar” and the spread of foreign influence through church channels.
• Structural Paralysis: The 27-year obstruction of convening the National Ecclesiastical Assembly and the lack of a unified, modern Church Constitution.
• Diaspora Fractures: Instigating or mismanaging splits within the vital dioceses of the Armenian Diaspora.

It links these public allegations against church leadership with the AAHC Book of Canon Law, historical statutes, and the legislation of Armenia.

Proposed Solutions

The government claims the report is not an attack on the Christian faith itself, stating it does not contest the doctrinal foundations or church traditions.

Instead, it proposes a five-step roadmap to address the structural crisis. government programs indicate these steps aim to push for the retirement or removal of the current catholicos, elect a temporary vicar (locum tenens), and draft a new church constitution ensuring strict financial transparency and cleric asset-monitoring.