Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on 25 June that law-enforcement agencies had foiled a “large and sinister” coup plot led by what he called a “criminal-oligarchic clergy.” The Investigative Committee reported the arrest of 14 people, including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a senior figure in the Armenian Apostolic Church and leader of the Sacred Struggle protest movement that has demanded the prime minister’s resignation.
Investigators accuse Galstanyan and his alleged co-conspirators of acquiring weapons, recruiting more than 1,000 supporters and preparing terrorist attacks aimed at seizing power. A Yerevan court later placed the archbishop in two-month pre-trial detention. Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan and several opposition politicians have also been detained on related charges, which all of the suspects deny.
Tensions escalated on 27 June when the National Security Service moved to arrest another outspoken cleric, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, at Holy Etchmiadzin, the church’s spiritual headquarters. Video from the scene showed scuffles between security forces, clergy and parishioners as cathedral bells rang in protest. Ajapahyan eventually surrendered and, on 28 June, was ordered into the same two-month pre-trial detention on accusations of publicly urging a violent overthrow of the government.
The Armenian Apostolic Church condemned the arrests as politically motivated, calling the security operation a “day of national shame.” Pashinyan, who faces parliamentary elections next year and continuing criticism over the 2023 loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, maintains that the crackdown is necessary to protect state security. Rights advocates warn that the widening confrontation between the government and the church risks deepening social and political instability in the South Caucasus country.
Why has Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan launched an unprecedented confrontation with the country’s clergy? And where could it lead? Caucasus expert Roman Chernikov explains.
Who will stop the dictatorship?
What can the government do to protect law and order if the parties that support the government fail to thwart the monarchy organized by their leaders and workers? The responsibility for this must be taken first of all by the leaders of those parties.
And what are the tactics in the country after these parties came to power after the elections
