On June 23, 2025, Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia, publicly condemned the leadership of the Holy See of Echmiadzin, accusing certain high-ranking clergy of moral corruption and demanding the immediate removal of Ktrich Nersisyan from the Armenian Apostolic Church.

In his statement, Pashinyan described the Holy See of Echmiadzin as “the epicenter of our national morality” and warned that when this sacred institution is led by individuals who have “broken their vows before God,” and whose character and behavior are “unacceptable and shameful even to secular people,” it endangers the entire nation’s moral foundation. Affirming his lifelong devotion to the Armenian Apostolic Church, Pashinyan declared, “I am a faithful follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who reveres every stone of our churches, hears the sounds and messages of our holy liturgy with my heart, kneels before God every day for 35 years, and prays, observing fasting and abstinence from time to time.”

Pashinyan urged the faithful to reject what he called the “debauched and treacherous behavior” of certain senior clergymen and to restore moral integrity within the Church’s leadership in accordance with its canonical laws. On the occasion of Easter, he called on pious citizens and clergy loyal to the Church’s values to distance themselves from corrupt figures. “There is no alternative,” Pashinyan proclaimed, directly demanding the departure of Ktrich Nersisyan from Holy Echmiadzin and urging believers and clergy to collectively and vocally insist on his removal.