Lawyer: AAC Supreme Spiritual Council members summoned to Investigative Committee
ArmInfo. Since this morning, police have been serving summonses to bishops who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, demanding that they appear before the Investigative Committee today as defendants. Lawyer Ara Zohrabyan reported this on his Facebook page.
He noted that some bishops have already received summonses. According to him, representatives of the Supreme Spiritual Council are accused of obstructing the execution of a judicial decision.
"Obviously, this is yet another interference in the internal affairs of the Church, the main goal of which is to hinder the holding of the Episcopal Council. I regret that the head of the Investigative Committee has deviated from her mission and is placing many conscientious investigators in this system in a difficult position," Zohrabyan added. As a reminder, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan launched a broad anti-church campaign in May 2025, demanding the resignation of the Catholicos of All Armenians. As part of this campaign, several clergy were imprisoned. Moreover, a group of bishops joined Pashinyan in demanding the resignation of the Catholicos of All Armenians. In this regard, on December 1, the Catholicos of All Armenians announced the convening of an episcopal assembly on December 10-12 to discuss recent developments related to the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and issues related to internal church life. However, on December 8, the Mother See of Etchmiadzin announced its indefinite postponement, given the repression against the clergy, including arrests. Then, Karekin II decided to convene the episcopal assembly in the Austrian city of St. Polten on February 16-19. It is noteworthy that it was at this time that the Investigative Committee of Armenia opened a criminal case following the decision of Karekin II to defrock Bishop Gevorg Saroyan, who had joined the Armenian authorities' anti-church campaign.