Ruling party moves to restrict church property sales

PanARMENIAN.Net - The ruling Civil Contract party has introduced a bill aimed at preventing religious institutions, primarily the Armenian Apostolic Church, from transferring ownership of monuments without prior government knowledge. Lawmakers Taguhi Ghazaryan and Sisak Gabrielyan co-authored the legislative proposal to amend Armenia’s Law on the Preservation and Use of Immovable Historical and Cultural Monuments and Historical Environment, according to Sputnik Armenia.

Speaking at the National Assembly, Taguhi Ghazaryan stated that under the proposed changes, “religious structures listed as state monuments can only be transferred to third parties, with or without compensation, with the explicit consent of the Armenian government.”

The bill grants the executive branch the authority to approve or deny such transfers if it deems that the intended use may be inappropriate or harmful to the public interest.

Ghazaryan clarified that the initiative primarily targets the Armenian Apostolic Church, which holds the largest number of culturally significant properties.

According to data she presented, over 360 monuments are currently under the Church’s control, including churches not officially designated as monuments. She noted that most churches built after 2010 are excluded from the monument list, but the government retains the right to revise the list and grant monument status to specific structures.

Addressing whether there have already been instances of property transfers that triggered this legislative push, Ghazaryan said, “While no concrete precedents are officially known, there are unrefuted reports.” She referred to statements by Bishop Gevorg Saroyan of the Masis Diocese, who was dismissed by the Catholicos but was ordered reinstated by an Armavir court pending a final ruling. According to Saroyan, Church-owned properties, including apartments, were transferred to family members of Church leaders.

Ghazaryan also recalled the controversial case involving the Holy Spear (Surb Geghard) and statements by Father Asoghik Karapetyan, director of the Mother See's archives and museums.

The incident in question dates back to 2004, when Catholicos Karekin II gifted a fragment from the shaft of the Holy Spear to Patriarch Alexy II of Russia for his 75th birthday. In connection with this, Armenia’s Investigative Committee recently questioned Father Asoghik Karapetyan.

The ruling party expressed particular concern over Father Asoghik’s assertion that “donating relics such as part of the Holy Spear is solely the Church’s prerogative; no one else has a say. The Church decides, the Church donates, and the Church knows what it donates.”

“This mindset could extend to properties owned by the Church,” Ghazaryan commented. “A small chapel, also a monument, might be gifted to a cleric on their birthday, for example.”

On January 4, 2026, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and bishops calling for the Catholicos’s resignation announced the launch of reforms within the Armenian Apostolic Church, presenting a 'roadmap' that includes establishing a coordinating council to oversee the process.