Armenia moves to arrest senior archbishop over coup allegations

Tensions between Armenia’s government and the Armenian Apostolic Church escalated dramatically on Friday after security forces attempted to arrest Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan outside the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the spiritual center of Armenian Christianity.

According to local news outlets, clashes broke out between security personnel and a crowd of supporters gathered at the church's headquarters near the capital, Yerevan, as officers moved to detain the archbishop over accusations of conspiring to overthrow the government.

Video footage circulating on Armenian media showed pushing and shouting outside the church compound. Security forces eventually withdrew, and Archbishop Ajapahyan reportedly agreed to meet with investigators to address the allegations. A court is expected to decide soon whether he will be formally placed in detention.

The incident follows the arrest earlier this week of another high-ranking cleric, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, along with 13 others, on charges of plotting a coup. Both Galstanyan and Ajapahyan deny any wrongdoing.

In a strongly worded statement, the Armenian Apostolic Church condemned Friday’s confrontation, declaring, “This day will remain in the modern history of our people as a day of national shame because of the shameful actions of Armenian authorities against the Armenian Church.”

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is facing growing political pressure ahead of next year’s elections, accused the clergy of attempting to undermine the state.

“The authorities have thwarted a large and sinister plan by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy’ to take power in Armenia,” he said earlier this week.

The clash marks a dramatic escalation in a long-simmering dispute between the secular government and elements of the church. Several senior clerics have previously demanded Pashinyan’s resignation, particularly after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 following a popular uprising against Armenia’s old guard, has seen his popularity decline in the aftermath of the war and Azerbaijan’s full takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. Many in Armenia view the loss of the region, where ethnic Armenians had lived with de facto autonomy for decades, as a national humiliation.