The Armenian Apostolic Church is the main hub of the country’s national identity, historically being the first nation in the world to officially adopt Christianity. Its Christian identity has marked the national one, such as the genocide suffered in 1917.

At present, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in power since he took power after overthrowing the previous government with a color revolution, has promoted a rapprochement with the United States and has been distancing himself from the international organizations where he participates with Russia, his main military supporter.

The main consequence was the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh following the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that expelled the majority Armenian population from the self-independent enclave.

The new political line compromising with Azeri demands has been contested by society and by Katolikos Karekin II himself, the highest spiritual authority of the IAA, who called for the dismissal of the prime minister.

The protests have been led by Bagrat Galstanian, charismatic archbishop of the Tavush region, to which the peoples returned to Azerbaijan belong. The archbishop and thirteen others were arrested on charges of plotting a coup d’état. The recognition of Azeri sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, the reform of the Armenian constitution under Azeri pressure and the construction of a highway linking Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan and thus with Turkey, puts the region under the geostrategic control of the two Turkish powers.

However, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accepts all this in favour of backing his political programme which, in exchange for renouncing territorial claims, aims with US support to transform Armenia into a modern country.

The prime minister has already had contacts with personalities such as George Soros who would help him with these changes.

One of the main ones is the necessary loss of the independence of the Apostolic Church, so that the attack on the figure of its Apostolic Church, the support of dissident clerics to promote their dismissal, would be in the work of subordinating the church to the government, in a similar way to the Scandinavian Lutheran churches totally imbued with woke ideology substituting true Christianity.

92% of the population of the republic is loyal to the IAA and political interference affects one of the most important rights such as religious freedom.