Regarding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements about attempting to move the Catholicosate abroad, he said: “The Mother See will not move anywhere until the end of the world. This will not happen. No matter what happens, if Armenia exists, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Catholicosate of All Armenians, will be in Holy Etchmiadzin; there will be no other place. This is nonsense.
As for the Mother See’s treasures, people probably really like having treasures. They resolved the issue with the treasures of Artsakh, and now they’ve moved to Armenia.
And secondly, what do you mean they want to take the treasures away? I’ve never heard such stupid nonsense in my life. If they can take them away, then, frankly, it’s a lie. They’re not a state, they’re not a government, so how can they take them away? This isn’t an accusation, but simply hatred of the Church, of the Church, and they’re covering up their dirty deeds with a smokescreen to justify their illegal actions with such false arguments.”
Referring to an interview with National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan on the Russian TV channel Dozhd, where the latter cited pedophilia among high-ranking clergy as an example, His Holiness Hovnan said: “Now we see that they’re creating false grounds, arresting everyone, making false accusations, and finding themselves in a ridiculous situation. The files of all the arrested clergy are being destroyed because there’s no basis in them. Yesterday, it was revealed that the videos related to His Holiness Arshak were fake. If this had such a widespread impact, imagine what the national security agencies and law enforcement agencies would have done. What a state they would have brought the Throne to. This is yet another attempt to deceive, the life they lead, and they see others the same way. They are once again fueling hatred against the church and the clergy. They are criminal puppies, and nothing more.”