Global rally in support of the Armenian Apostolic Church held at forty-eight churches across Russia

On Catholic Easter, a large-scale international rally in support of the Armenian Apostolic Church and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II took place across multiple countries, bringing together tens of thousands of participants.

Mass events were held simultaneously in Armenia, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Georgia, Romania, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and a number of other countries. Members of the Armenian diaspora joined the initiative alongside those who support the preservation of the Armenian people’s spiritual and cultural heritage.

The rally spanned dozens of cities and churches, including in Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk, Togliatti, Volgograd, Kirov, Tambov, Saint Petersburg, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Tver, Kaliningrad, Samara, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Rostov-on-Don, Tashkent, Simferopol, Feodosia, Tyumen, Barnaul, Yalta, Izhevsk, Perm, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, and Krasnoyarsk. In Russia, events were held at 48 AAC churches; in Armenia, at 12, including several key spiritual centers.

The organizers note that coordination was handled by the international platform armspyurk.com. The centerpiece of the rally was a signature collection drive in support of the Church and its leader. More than one thousand volunteers took part in organizing and running the events, with hundreds of participants turning out in each community.

The Easter date lent particular significance to the rallies: participants emphasized the symbolism of coming together around shared spiritual values on that day specifically. According to the organizers, the events were among the largest in recent years in terms of engagement across Armenian communities worldwide.

Volunteers from the youth movement Sons of Holy Echmiadzin played an active role in the signature drive: 120 members collected over 15,000 signatures. The campaign is ongoing and currently active in around 50 cities across Russia, as well as in a number of countries abroad.