On June 25, Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan received Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II at his residence, his spokesperson Arman Musinyan reported on Facebook.

During their hour-long meeting, they discussed the current situation in Armenia and addressed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s alleged political retaliation against businessman Samvel Karapetyan. The retaliation, they noted, followed Karapetyan’s comment: “If politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way,” made in response to what he viewed as a government-declared war on the Church. According to Musinyan, this was a legitimate political statement, which Karapetyan had every right to make as a citizen.

President Ter-Petrosyan reportedly described Pashinyan as “the embodiment of defeat,” referencing his loss in the Nagorno-Karabakh war and predicting failure in his confrontation with the Armenian Church.

Earlier, Ter-Petrosyan visited the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and expressed full support for the Catholicos, condemning what the Church described as “unconstitutional encroachment” by the authorities on the 1700-year-old Armenian Church.

In response, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook that Ter-Petrosyan naturally supports “another anti-people forger and fraud,” referring to the Catholicos. “Levon Ter-Petrosyan is the founder of electoral fraud in Armenia, and of course, he would side with someone like himself,” Pashinyan added.