By order of Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, Bishop Gevorg Saroyan was relieved of his post as primate of the Diocese of Masiatsotn of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This is reported by the office of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin.
It is noted that the basis for such a decision was abuse of office, omissions in the performance of official duties, coercion and pressure on the clergy of the Masiatsotn diocese.
Hieromonk Ruben Zargaryan was appointed locum tenens of the head of the diocese by the decision of the Catholicos of All Armenians.

The confrontation between the Armenian authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church intensified after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's harsh statements about the clergy and his initiative to change the procedure for electing Catholicos, which provides for the key role of the state. Against this background, the heads of three dioceses, Archbishops Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikael Ajapakhyan, Bishop Mkrtych Proshyan, as well as the head of the office of the Mother See of Echmiadzin, Arshak Khachatryan, were previously arrested on various charges.
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, who stood up for the Church, was arrested because of the phrase "we will participate in all this in our own way."
The escalation received a new impetus on November 27, when a statement signed by a group of AAC hierarchs appeared in pro-government publications. They accused Catholicos Garegin II of trying to hush up the "blasphemous act" of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, referring to intimate videos that appeared online (Vladyka Khachatryan himself denies his involvement), and stated that by doing so the patriarch "patronizes blasphemy." On the same day, the authors of the statement met with Prime Minister Pashinyan. On November 29, 10 signatories issued a new statement calling on Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II to abdicate, accusing him of arbitrary governance, political interference and other actions incompatible, according to them, with the mission of the head of the Church.