Armenia’s historic prayer breakfast stirs up critics

More than 300 faith, business and political leaders have convened for a national prayer breakfast in the world’s oldest Christian nation amid ongoing tensions between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is scheduled to speak at the event. 

With proceedings taking place on Friday and Saturday in Yerevan, the first-ever Republic of Armenia Prayer Breakfast is initiated and organized by Armenian civil society leaders, with “the support and participation” of Pashinyan, a former journalist who rose to power in 2018 after a wave of pro-democracy protests. 

Although the event’s purpose is to renew the country’s “spiritual foundations and affirm its traditional Christian values,” it does not come without its critics as the country gears up for the June 2026 election. 

The organizers of Armenia’s inaugural national prayer breakfast disputed claims promoted by media figures like Tucker Carlson about the ongoing tensions between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Pashinyan.

Dede Laugesen, an event organizer who is president and CEO of the United States-based nonprofit organization Save the Persecuted Christians, told The Christian Post that the prayer breakfast is “historic” and assured that it’s “a civil society-organized and founded event, not a government-led one.”

“We are the organizers, Save the Persecuted Christians, Save Armenia, Mercury One and the Nazarene Fund, Glenn Beck’s Charities, and the Shai Fund,” Laugesen said.

While Pashinyan is scheduled to deliver a keynote address, Laugesen emphasized that members of the Armenian Apostolic Church are also in attendance, with one bishop appearing on stage on Friday. 

“There is a lot of misinformation and malinformation, in my opinion, by those who prefer Russian dominance over Armenia instead of their liberation in solidarity with America,” the Save the Persecuted Christians CEO stated. 

Pashinyan’s presence at the prayer breakfast has sparked controversy due to the ongoing dispute with church leaders, which has garnered attention from Western media figures.

Last week, Carlson published an interview with Narek Karapetyan, the nephew of imprisoned Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, and Robert Amsterdam, Samvel Karapetyan’s lawyer. Samvel Karapetyan was arrested in June for allegedly advocating for the removal of the government, an allegation he denied. 

The nephew claimed during the interview that Pashinyan is trying to make Armenia “less Christian,” with Carlson asserting that the Armenian prime minister “seems to be intent on destroying traditional Christianity or the church,” asking for Narek to elaborate.

“Our prime minister, six months ago, started to attack the Armenian Church and the head of the Armenian Church,” Karapetyan claimed. “He wants to dethrone him. He imprisoned three archbishops.”

Later, the former Fox News Host suggested that Pashinyan, similar to some political leaders in the United States, is “focusing on transgenderism as a good thing [and] the LGBTQ agenda, whatever that is.”

The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Pashinyan administration have been engaged in a tense standoff since mid-2024, following Armenia’s agreement to cede several border villages to Azerbaijan as part of a plan to normalize relations. Church leaders played a prominent role in organizing mass demonstrations.

Last month, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan of the Diocese of Aragatsotn and 12 clergymen were arrested. Armenia’s Investigative Committee stated that Proshyan was charged with coercing citizens to participate in public gatherings, obstructing electoral rights, and misusing his office to commit large-scale theft, as reported by the Associated Press at the time. 

In September, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was convicted of calling for the overthrow of the government and sentenced to two years in prison. His arrest followed the June arrest of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who led an opposition movement called Sacred Struggle. Galstanyan, the bishop of a border region impacted by the cession to Azerbaijan, was arrested with 13 others and charged with orchestrating a plot to overthrow the government. 

The Armenian government alleges that the group planned to establish 250 “assault” militias of 25 members each to carry out attacks, according to BBC. Investigators contend that “a large quantity of items and objects intended for criminal activity” were found. Galstanyan’s lawyers dismissed the charges as “political persecution.”

Leaders in the Armenian Apostolic Church have largely opposed Pashinyan, who has sought to reduce Russian influence and improve relations with Turkey and Western nations. Some critics believe that he is not doing enough to stand up for the displaced refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh and their right to return following the 2023 invasion by Azerbaijan. 

During his interview on Carlson’s podcast last week, Amsterdam criticized the national prayer breakfast for taking place “while [his] client is in jail.”

“Archbishops have been jailed, clerics have been jailed. The leader of the country is trying to split the Church by going to services of a defrocked priest, a man who has said he is going to remove the leader of the Church,” the lawyer claimed. 

“This man is being feted by American Christians in Yerevan, Armenia, a man who calls clerics prostitutes, a man who uses language that, at my advanced age, I’ve never heard a leader use against leaders of the Church. And yet, shockingly, this prayer breakfast is going to go on,” he said. “And I call it a reputation-laundering breakfast. The U.S. government allows this to go on.”

Laugesen attributed the recent controversy over the prayer breakfast to the fact that it’s an election year in Armenia. 

“So, of course, you have election year politics going on,” she said. “[M]ultiple different opposition parties and potential candidates for prime minister.”

Matias Perttula, a U.S.-based international religious freedom advocate who works with Save Armenia and is also an organizer for the prayer breakfast, told CP that the situation and the way some members of the media have reported on it have been “distracting.”

Perttula asserted that Armenia needs to “stay united and stay together and look to the future.” He urged Christians in the United States to continue praying for Armenian Christians and for a reconciliation between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church. 

“Pray that they come together in unity, because now is really not the time to stand divided,” Perttula said. “It’s the time to stand together.”