Armenian Church Head Karekin II Goes on Trial in Feud with PM Pashinyan

Catholicos Karekin II, spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, went on trial August 7 at Armavir Regional Court in Vagharshapat alongside six clerics. They defied a civil court order to reinstate a defrocked bishop allied with PM Pashinyan. Each faces up to two years in prison. The case tests church-state boundaries amid a feud rooted in the 2023 Nagorno-Karabakh war's fallout.