The leader of the Armenian national church, along with six bishops, will stand trial on Friday in Armenia. The judge can draw on three new key rulings in favor of respect for internal church governance.
Photo shows the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in Armenia. Photo: courtesy of the Mother See
YEREVAN – On Friday, Judge Serzh Rushanyan will preside over a landmark and highly-controversial case – the trial of the head of the Armenian national church, the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.
The Catholicos and six bishops are charged with obstructing court-ordered interim measures to reinstate a defrocked former bishop, Arman Saroyan.
But that case, upon which the charges are based, has since been thrown out.
The judge ultimately determined that the civil courts of Armenia had no right to interfere in internal ecclesiastical decisions of the Church, and that Arman Saroyan had no right to be reinstated to his former post.
That ruling, and parallel terminations of two cases brought by defrocked former priests, do not automatically impact the case at hand, despite the fact that the interim measures the Catholicos is charged with obstructing are now null and void.
However, they do set notable precedents – confirmations of respect for internal church governance – that should inform the approach of Judge Rushanyan on Friday.
While the relevant rulings supportive of Church internal governance were published in Armenia’s public court database just one week ago, on October 21, the judgements had been made two months prior.
The time discrepancy between the rulings and their publications was highly unusual, but during that time, the government had worked to shore up the foundations and levers of its campaign against the Church leadership.
In August, Prime Minister Pashinyan’s ruling party released a five-year government program that includes the removal of the Catholicos – a goal in contravention of Armenia’s own laws and treaty obligations.
In September, Pashinyan’s office published a report packed with unsubstantiated claims against the Church leadership, again in an attempt to shore up its campaign.
Finally, in October, the ruling party set up a parliamentary commission charged with examining Church issues. The opposition blocs refused to take part, insisting it was an illegal undertaking.
The government’s case against the Catholicos has met multiple stumbling blocks from the get-go.
Three judges, including the current judge presiding over the case, have either recused themselves or sought other technicalities to stay clear of the controversial undertaking.
Judge Rushanyan had sought to transfer the case to Yerevan, but it was ultimately decided that it should be heard in his court in Armavir, the district in which the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatzin is located.
When Judge Rushanyan takes up the Catholicos‘ trial on Friday, he will be facing not the original prosecutor who brought the case, but a newly appointed official.
Following the three consecutive judge recusals, Prosecutor Khachatur Galstyan resigned from his post on September 5.
The Office of the Prosecutor General insisted that the departure had nothing to do with the historic Catholicos trial, following media leaks that Galstyan had sought to distance himself from the proceedings after having been allegedly promised that it would never go to trial.
International religious freedom groups have for their part advocated against the government’s pressure campaign.
Christian Solidarity International condemned the “report” on the church authored by the Prime Minister’s office and has called on Pashinyan’s government to cease its campaign.
Paula White, senior faith advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, made the point to meet with the Catholicos and to attend the Divine Liturgy in his presence during her first visit to Armenia in early October.
Last week, Miriam Lexmann, the European Union’s standing rapporteur on Armenia, said that it is “it is essential to reduce government pressure on the Church,” which she called “a symbol of freedom that stands above human authority, something all Armenians have looked to as a symbol of hope during difficult times and throughout past centuries.”
The power grab by Armenia’s secular authorities is the biggest challenge the Armenian Apostolic Church has faced since the worst repressions of Soviet rule in Armenia, which in 1938 saw Catholicos Khoren murdered inside the premises of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatzin.
Catholicos Karekin II has held firm for the past year and a half as government pressures have mounted, ranging from the jailing of four bishops to a travel ban that sabotaged an episcopal assembly that was meant to be held in February in Austria.
The Church maintains that the matter at hand in Friday’s case is strictly within the bounds of its internal governance, and that the court has no authority to meddle in such decisions regarding who may serve as clergy.
Judge Rushanyan would be acting in accordance with Armenian law and international treaty obligations to uphold respect for the Church’s internal governance on Friday.
