News - In order to pronounce the Catholicos' name, the citizens were escorted out of the church, and the police took them away (photos).

Today at St. Sarkis Church, during the liturgy conducted under the direction of Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan and in the presence of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the name of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, was not uttered, as it has not been in recent liturgies attended by Pashinyan. Instead, several citizens voiced the Catholicos's name, after which the Prime Minister's security guards escorted them out of the church. The Catholicos's name, spoken aloud in the church by Hovhannes Ishkhanian and Hayk Dorunts, was taken away in a police car. In an interview with Hetq, Ishkhanian said that they were not taken to a police station, but were released along the way: Ishkhanian near the Mother Armenia statue, and Dorunts near the entrance to Victory Park. The police did not explain on what grounds they were taking them, only that they had been removed from the scene. Recall that Dorunts had been expelled from the church once more when, at Hovhannavank during a service attended by the prime minister, it was announced that a suspended priest did not have the right to celebrate the liturgy.