Masked Armenian police were thwarted by clergy and church supporters who blocked agents as they attempted to detain a senior Armenian Apostolic Church cleric as a standoff between authorities and the church escalates.
Police and officers from Armenia’s National Security Service arrived at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on June 27 to detain Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahian, the Primate of the Shirak Diocese.
He is accused of making public statements more than a year ago that authorities say constituted a call to seize power and forcibly overthrow Armenia’s constitutional order.
The move came two days after the Investigative Committee of Armenia detained Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, who led massive and largely peaceful anti-government protests last year. He has rejected accusations he was preparing a violent overthrow of the government.
The outspoken Ajapahian also rejected the accusations, describing what was happening as “absolutely illegal.”
“I am not a threat to this country, the threat is sitting in the government,” Ajapahian said in Etchmiadzin in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
“I have never hidden, and I am not going to hide now. I do not want to create the impression of hiding behind my brethren. They came after me, I will go,” he added.
Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was also on the site during the standoff with law-enforcement officers.
Representatives of the clergy said that Ajapahian had intended to comply with police orders and allow himself to be taken into custody, but was repeatedly prevented from doing so because “people would not let him.”
Later, Ajapahian’s lawyer said the archbishop was voluntarily heading to the Investigative Committee.
“I am not afraid of anything. The accusation is completely fabricated,” Ajapahian said.
The arrests came after a written “coup plan” was posted on a pro-government website.
It also followed the arrest of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian who had strongly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s campaign against the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and threatened that “if politicians fail, then we will also participate in all of this in our own way.”
Legal authorities construed that statement as a threat to violently overthrow the government. The Church and leading opposition groups condemned Karapetian’s arrest.
The latest actions against senior Armenian clergymen come amid a broader standoff between the Pashinian government and the Church that took a dramatic turn several weeks ago when the prime minister began accusing the clergy of breaching their vows of celibacy.
In particular, claiming to be acting as a Christian rather than a state official, Pashinian accused Garegin II of fathering a child and called on him to resign and vacate his seat at the Holy See.
Escalating Tensions
Pashinian threatened on June 26 to forcibly remove the Catholicos from his Etchmiadzin headquarters if the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church continued to ignore his demands to resign.
Earlier, following an emergency meeting chaired by Garegin II, the church’s Supreme Spiritual Council cast doubt on the credibility of the coup allegations against Galstanian.
Armenia’s leading opposition groups have likewise described the case as politically motivated, dismissing Pashinian’s claims that security services have foiled a coup attempt.
Pashinian’s detractors claim that he launched his campaign against the church in an effort to please Azerbaijan, which has been critical of the activities of the Armenian Apostolic Church and its head -- a claim dismissed by government officials.
Late in May, Garegin II attended an international conference in Switzerland on the preservation of Karabakh’s Armenian religious and cultural heritage. The conference, organized by the World Council of Churches, was denounced by Azerbaijan’s top Shia Muslim cleric who is close to the government.
Several days ago, the back and forth between Pashinian and church officials -- criticized by many opposition politicians and public figures for its acrimonious and foul-mouthed tone -- appeared to reach a new low.
In a sarcastic Facebook post, Pashinian, referring to Catholicos Garegin II by his lay name, Ktrij Nersisian, mockingly implied that he could show his genitals to him to confirm he is not circumcised. This followed remarks by Garegin’s spokesman, who had questioned whether Pashinian is circumcised.
“In his turn, let him finally answer whether he broke the vow of celibacy or not -- whether he has a child or not,” Pashinian added in his June 24 post.
