The head of the Gugark Diocese categorically dismisses claims linking clergy and ruling party.

In a direct response, Bishop Hovnan calls rumours false and rejects any intention to remove the Catholicos.

Gugark Diocese leader, His Grace Bishop Hovnan Hakobyan, denied reports suggesting that some members of the episcopate were in contact with members of the ruling Civil Contract Party. “There is no such thing, I can deny it one hundred percent,” he stated, according to Aysor.am .

The bishop also described Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement—that Etchmiadzin must be "liberated" from the Catholicos—as hubris. “No one can attack the Mother See; the patriarchate is a residence, and no one has the right to enter it,” he emphasized .

He insisted there is absolutely no chance of the Catholicos stepping down under political pressure. “It’s out of the question, erase that from your minds,” Bishop Hovnan affirmed .

On Facebook, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote that “active steps are necessary to liberate the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and organize a new Catholicos election.” He added that “a coordinating group must be created to manage this agenda, and I will take responsibility for selecting its first ten members.”