Speaker of Armenian parliament confident of imminent departure by Karekin

The speaker of the Armenian parliament, Alen Simonyan, is confident that the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II will soon resign from his position, Report informs via Armenian media outlets.

He made the remark while speaking to journalists in the parliament.

"I am confident that he will leave very soon," he said.

However, Simonyan did not clarify the source of this confidence. The speaker emphasized that the ruling Civil Contract party does not have a candidate for the Catholicos throne.

Recently Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared the necessity of holding extraordinary elections for the Catholicos of All Armenians.

Since the end of May, Pashinyan has been making harsh statements against Karekin II and the archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), demanding that the Catholicos leave the throne due to information about his violation of the celibacy vow.