Top Turkish OSCE Official Pledged to Assist in Pashinyan’s Campaign to Remove

OSCE Secretay General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu of Turkey makes a public address standing in front of a photo of Kemal Ataturk in 2023

Rights and Christian Groups Urge OSCE Official Clarify Remarks

The Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu of Turkey, in recent remarks publicized on various media outlets appeared willing to lend his office’s support to the campaign to remove Catholicos Karekin II spearheaded by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government.

While the provenance of Sinirlioğlu’s remarks is dubious, at best, nevertheless the top OSCE official made them.

Sinirlioğlu made the comments to Russian pranksters, who telephoned him and impersonated Pashinyan. The recording of the “phone call” has been circulating on some social media platforms, as well as various Russian media outlets since July 8.

Thinking that he was speaking to Pashinyan, Sinirlioğlu accused Catholicos Karekin II of politicizing the Armenian Apostolic Church. He then agreed to “look into” how the OSCE might support the person impersonating Pashinyan in the matter of removing the Catholicos.

The person impersonating Pashinyan asked for Sinirlioğlu’s support in the event of any public criticism, to which the OSCE Secretary General responded with “Okay, I’ll do my best, I’ll try.”

In a statement issued on Thursday, four human rights and religious organizations—the Armenian Center for Political Rights, the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, the Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe, and Christian Solidarity International—expressed their deep concern and condemned Sinirlioğlu for the statements he made and demanded immediate public clarification by the top OSCE official.

“We are conscious of the provenance of these remarks. They were obtained by Russian pranksters, who telephoned the Secretary General while impersonating Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The call was made public on July 8. These pranksters have a track record of targeting politicians and officials to secure statements on sensitive public matters. We do not condone deception of this kind. Nevertheless, while we recognise that the exchange was engineered, the Secretary General’s own words reveal a posture that cannot be reconciled with the responsibilities of his office,” the statement by the groups said.

After detailing the content of the recording, the four groups emphasized that at no point in the conversation did the “Secretary General object that the forced removal of a religious leader by the state would violate the very freedoms the OSCE is committed to uphold.”

“Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act 1975 sets out the OSCE’s foundational commitment to “human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.” That commitment has been reaffirmed repeatedly and is binding on all 57 participating states, including Armenia. The autonomy of religious organizations, and their freedom to govern their own internal and canonical affairs, lie at the heart of that guarantee. Since the Secretary General is charged with upholding this commitment, he should not be offering even qualified encouragement to a government bent on deposing the head of a church,” the statement explained.

“These remarks cannot be viewed in isolation. Since May 2025, the Armenian government has pursued a systematic and sustained campaign against the AAHC [Armenian Apostolic Church] as part of a broader attack on democracy and rule of law. Prime Minister Pashinyan has publicly called for the removal of Catholicos Karekin II, published a ‘roadmap’ setting out steps to depose him, and levelled unsubstantiated accusations against the Catholicos and senior clergy. Travel bans have been brought against the Catholicos and several bishops, and high-ranking clergymen have been detained on criminal charges that appear politically motivated. Taken together, these actions constitute a state-orchestrated effort to subordinate the Church to the government’s will, putting at risk the separation of church and state enshrined in Armenia’s Constitution,” the statement charged.

The four organizations stressed that the Armenian Apostolic Church “is no ordinary party to a political dispute. Since Armenia’s adoption of Christianity in 301 AD, the Church has played a critical role in preserving the Armenian language, culture and national identity, a role recognized under Article 18 of the Armenian Constitution as an ‘exclusive mission.’”

“Far from politicizing the Church—as the Secretary General claims—the Catholicos has sought to discharge this constitutional responsibility by defending the rights of the Armenian people, not least those ethnically cleansed from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. Any state-led effort to depose the Catholicos thus violates not only Armenia’s commitment to religious freedom, but also the country’s settled constitutional order,” the organizations went on to point out.

They called on Sinirlioğlu to publicly clarify and retract any suggestion that the OSCE would support the removal of the Catholicos or otherwise interfere in the internal governance of the Armenian Apostolic Church; reaffirm the OSCE’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion or belief in Armenia, consistent with its human dimension commitments; and engage with the Catholicos to ensure that the rights of the Church, its clergy and its faithful are fully respected.

“We stand ready to meet with the OSCE to share further information and our concerns, and we will continue to monitor the conduct of its leadership closely. The head of the OSCE should be a bulwark against the violation of religious freedom, not a willing accessory to it. On the evidence of these remarks, Secretary General Sinirlioğlu has failed that test, and he must now make plain where he stands,” the statement concluded.

The statement to the OSCE was signed by John Eibner President Christian Solidarity International; Rafael Ishkhanyan President Armenian Center for Political Rights; Ján Figeľ President Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe; and Siranush Sahakyan President Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

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