As Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II appeared in court in an unprecedented criminal case Friday, supporters gathered outside described the moment as painful, humiliating and deeply unsettling for a nation whose church has survived centuries of war, foreign rule and political upheaval.
The Armenian Report spoke with filmmakers, activists and political figures outside the Vagharshapat courthouse, where the first criminal proceedings against a sitting Catholicos in modern Armenian history opened before abruptly ending when the judge recused himself.
For documentary filmmaker Gagik Harutyunyan, seeing the Catholicos enter a courtroom was difficult to reconcile with the image of the Church leader he had known since childhood.
Harutyunyan recalled watching the Catholicos address Armenians on New Year’s Day and major Christian holidays. As a child, he said, the figure on television seemed distant from ordinary life — the leader of an institution he viewed with reverence.
On Friday, that image changed.
“Today, however, we see him in a completely different setting — standing before a court, in an ordinary, human situation,” Harutyunyan told The Armenian Report. “As a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church and as a young Armenian, this is deeply shocking to me.”
He said the sight carried particular weight after years of upheaval for Armenians, including the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh, and the forced displacement of its indigenous Armenian population.
“After everything that has happened over these years, everything our nation has been through, I did not think there was anything left that could surprise me,” Harutyunyan said. “But today, I am not only surprised — I am once again in shock.”
What troubled him most, he said, was what the proceedings represented for an institution closely tied to Armenian history and identity.
“Something that should never have happened is happening before our eyes,” Harutyunyan said. “All the values we were proud of, all the things we relied upon — particularly this institution, our national institution — are being shaken.”
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