Archbishop Sebouh Chouldjian, Primate of the Diocese of Gougark (Armenia) died this morning from Covid-19.

“The death of His Holiness is a great loss for the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Diocese of Gougark and its faithful children," the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin said in a statement.

Archbishop Chouldjian was born in Malatya in 1959 and received his primary education at Istanbul’s Nersisian College.

The family resettled in Armenia in 1969.

He was one of the three candidates for the Co-Patriarch at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2010.