Rows of riot police separated them from a smaller number of government supporters who also gathered outside the Echmiadzin cathedral in response to calls from renegade clerics involved in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s efforts to depose the supreme head of the church. No serious violent incidents were reported during the standoff that lasted for hours.
Ten archbishops and bishops issued late on Wednesday a fresh joint statement calling on Garegin to resign and urging Armenians to help them “liberate” the church’s Mother See the next evening. The Mother See responded by scheduling a special prayer service at the same time.
Armenian opposition leaders and other prominent critics of the government urged supporters to join them in attending the service. They accused Pashinian of organizing an attack on Garegin’s headquarters.
Pashinian denied that when he spoke to reporters on Thursday afternoon. But he did voice support for the actions of the rebel priests.
“We are defending the church against Turks and Pashinian’s provocateurs, and we will keep doing that,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leader of the opposition Hayastan alliance, told reporters shortly before the service.
Garegin received a hero’s welcome from his supporters as he emerged from his adjacent residence and made his way to the ancient church packed with other worshippers. They chanted his name and title throughout the service, responding to calls for Garegin’s resignation shouted by the pro-government protesters, many of them ruling party members and supporters.
Meanwhile, Garegin delivered a sermon in which he denounced the “continuing attacks on our church” and gave no indications that he will bow to the pressure. He also slammed the renegade bishops while urging them to “return to the canonical field.”
As the Catholicos spoke, several of those bishops surrounded by police and plainclothes security officers made a brief appearance outside the church. They hastily left the scene after repeating their demands through a megaphone.