Will the Bishops’ Assembly Scheduled for February 16–19 in Austria Take Place?

Archbishops Daniel and Ararat have departed for Austria to participate in the Bishops’
Assembly convened in the city of St. Pölten, Director of the Information System of the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Rev. Fr. Yesayi Arthenyan, informed the media.

His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, will not
participate, as public criminal prosecution has been initiated against him. According to the
Investigative Committee, a travel ban has been imposed as a preventive measure.

The criminal proceedings were initiated on the grounds of “failure to execute a judicial act
or obstruction of its execution.” The judicial act required the reinstatement of Arman
Sargsyan as Primate of the Masyatsotn Diocese.
The Bishops’ Assembly is scheduled to take place on February 16–19 in St. Pölten,
Austria.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has previously stated that convening a Bishops’ Assembly
outside Armenia aims at “removing the Catholicism from Armenia.”