A worldwide coalition of Christian churches has reaffirmed support for the Armenian Apostolic Church and deplored “undue interference” in its internal affairs following the start of Catholicos Garegin II’s trial.
Rev. Jerry Pillay, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the WCC central committee moderator, expressed “deep concern regarding the current situation affecting the Armenian Apostolic Church” in a joint statement issued over the weekend.
The statement came after Garegin and six Armenian archbishops and bishops went on trial amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s continuing efforts to depose the supreme head of the ancient church to which the vast majority of Armenians belong. The accusations levelled against them stem from the defrocking in January this year of a pro-government bishop involved in Pashinian’s controversial campaign. Their lawyers maintain that Armenian courts and law-enforcement bodies have no jurisdiction over internal church affairs.
“WCC, as a global fellowship of churches, affirms the vital role of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the spiritual, cultural, and historical life of the Armenian people and in the wider Christian family. As WCC, we express our concern about undue interference in inner church matters,” Pillay and Bedford-Strohm said in a clear reference to the unprecedented trial.
“We uphold the Armenian Church and its people in prayer and support during this time,” added their statement.
WCC already warned the authorities in Yerevan against undermining “the principles of religious freedom, due process, and the peaceful exercise of faith” at the start of Pashinian’s controversial campaign in July last year. The Switzerland-based organization uniting 352 Orthodox and Protestant churches from around the world decried the arrests of two Armenian archbishops critical of the government.
Pashinian began pressuring Garegin to step down shortly after WCC hosted in May 2025 an international conference in Switzerland on the preservation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian religious and cultural heritage. Addressing the conference, Garegin accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Karabakh and illegally occupying Armenian border areas. He also denounced the “sham trials” of eight former Karabakh leaders captured during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive.
In a June 2025 letter to WCC, Azerbaijan’s top Shia Muslim cleric closely linked to the government accused the Catholicos of spreading “provocative, revanchist propaganda.” Pashinian’s domestic detractors see a direct connection between Baku’s reaction and the crackdown on the Armenian Church.
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