Father Asoghik Karapetyan said that a "state-sponsored terror campaign" is being orchestrated in Armenia. According to him, not only the church but also the core values of national identity are under imminent threat.

"In the Republic of Armenia, terrorism is being openly planned—on a state level. Where are the competent authorities? Where are current and former officials, parliament members, and other prominent figures? Are you so blind and deaf? Are you truly so degraded, so spiritually sold, that you direct your deceitful schemes against the Holy Church and the holiest of holy sites, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin? Are you driving the people toward conflict? Do you intend to flood the church yard with blood?

Hear and stop, you incompetents. No cleric—from the humblest servant to the highest ranks—will ever allow your defiled hands and corrupt persons to raise a sword against Holy Etchmiadzin and its God-anointed Patriarch.

There are no Judases in the Armenian Church to betray and lead the mob against the Lord’s Anointed. Every servant of the Armenian Church is an apostle, ready for martyrdom," he wrote.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, meanwhile, stated that "the Armenian Apostolic Church must have a newly elected Catholicos" and urged church followers to unite "in love and Christian spirit to free the Catholicosate and to elect a truly sacred spiritual leader as Catholicos of All Armenians." This was posted on his Facebook page.

He added, "Karekin II has broken the vow of celibacy he undertook voluntarily and has a child. This is a fact, and if Karekin II tries to deny it, I will prove it in the proper format. Therefore, Karekin II could not have been a bishop or archbishop and cannot be Catholicos. Ktrich Nersisyan must vacate the Catholicosate."