Khoren I of Armenia

while others write about the widely held belief that he was murdered by the NKVD.

Muradbekian's murder was part of the larger campaign to suppress the Armenian Church under Stalin. Violence against clergy was commonplace in the 1930s, especially during the height of the Great Purge in 1937–1938. In total some 67 Armenian clergymen were killed by the Soviets, including 64 in 1937–1938 alone. The anti-Soviet dissident Armenian Church U.S. diocese noted that Muradbekian became the first head of the Armenian Church (Catholicos) to be murdered since the 5th century Hovsep (Joseph) of Vayots Dzor was killed by the Persians.

Circumstances The circumstances of his death were never definitely established. Soviet Armenian authorities claimed he died of a heart attack. Official Soviet Armenian historiography entirely overlooked the circumstances of his death. For instance, the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia entry on him did not indicate the cause of his death.

According to a private investigation by Torgom Vehapetian, a diaspora Armenian who resided in Soviet Armenia in 1966–1971, Khoren I was killed by a woman named Piruz, a member of a group of security agents who wanted the key to the treasury, which Khoren I refused to give to them. They alleged that the church possessed a large amount of arms and treasures, which the state wanted to confiscate. The woman reportedly hit the Catholicos in the head with an electrical cable. Vehapetian wrote that witnesses believed it constituted involuntary manslaughter since their intent was to scare him. According to another version, Khoren I was strangled to death by Soviet security agents. This view has become more widely accepted, based on forensic evidence and evidence from his burial.

According to Vazgen I, Catholicos from 1955 to 1994, Khoren I was killed on the orders of Viktor Khvorоstian, the Interior Minister of Soviet Armenia, who himself was executed shortly thereafter. Khvorstian claimed in June 1938 that Khoren I had died of a heart attack because he foresaw the end of his life and the catholicosate of Etchmiadzin. Vazgen I also noted that Grigory Arutinov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia in 1937–1953, had told him that Lavrentiy Beria was ultimately responsible for Khoren I's murder.

A 2023 study suggested that the Soviet authorities' interactions with Catholicos Khoren I were driven above all by financial interests, namely compelling him to transfer diaspora funds to Soviet Armenia, resorting to threats and the intimidation of those close to him. Kanakara Hayrapetyan argues that murdering the Catholicos was not the intended goal as he retained considerable moral authority in the diaspora and his assassination risked prompting the relocation of the Armenian Apostolic Church's center abroad, which would have severed the Soviet Union's last meaningful leverage over Armenian communities. She explains the unusually hasty burial to the authorities' desire to forestall public gatherings.

Burial His body remained at the residence for two days until he was buried at the cemetery of the nearby Saint Gayane Church by several nuns of Etchmiadzin. His remains were reburied near the entrance of the same church by locum tenens Gevorg Chorekchian in 1941 with a gravestone. On September 7, 1996, the remains of Khoren I were reburied by Catholicos Karekin I near the entrance of Etchmiadzin Cathedral, next to other Catholicoi of the Armenian Church.