Armenian authorities arrest an archbishop and accuse him of plotting against the government

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Armenia's information services arrested 1 of the country’s apical spiritual leaders connected coercion charges Wednesday and accused him of plotting to overthrow the government, the 2nd apprehension successful a week of a salient governmental opponent.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a large fig successful the influential Apostolic Church, was arrested by Armenia's Investigative Committee, which accused him of readying to transportation retired bombings and arson attacks to disrupt powerfulness supplies and signifier accidents connected large roads to paralyze traffic. His lawyer described the charges arsenic “fiction.”

Galstanyan leads the Sacred Struggle absorption question and has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was the absorption of protests past twelvemonth by tens of thousands of demonstrators aft Armenia agreed to manus implicit power of several borderline villages to bitter rival Azerbaijan and to normalize relations betwixt the neighbors.

Galstanyan leads the Tavush Diocese successful northeastern Armenia and spearheaded a question that opposed the handover of the villages successful the country, which was erstwhile portion of the Soviet Union. Although the territorial concession was the movement’s halfway issue, it has expanded to a wide array of complaints astir Pashinyan, who came to powerfulness successful 2018.

The determination to crook implicit the villages followed a lightning subject run successful September 2023, successful which Azerbaijan’s subject forced taste Armenian separatists successful the Karabakh portion to capitulate.

Pashinyan wrote connected societal media that the information services had foiled a crippled by “the transgression oligarch clergy to destabilize Armenia and instrumentality power.”

Officials said 13 others besides were detained amid raids by constabulary connected the homes of dozens of absorption activists. The Investigative Committee said it carried retired implicit 90 searches and recovered grounds that included firearms and ammunition.

In summation to disputing the charges, Galstanyan’s lawyer, Sergei Harutyunyan, said constabulary searched the cleric's residence for six hours but recovered lone fume bombs that are commonly utilized astatine protests successful Armenia.

“They spent clip studying each room, each closet, each letter; they recorded everything,” Harutyunyan said.

Attempts to impeach Pashinyan were unsuccessful, but the narration betwixt him and the Apostolic Church has deteriorated.

On June 8, Pashinyan called for religion person Catholicos Karekin II to resign aft accusing him of fathering a kid contempt a vow of celibacy. The religion released a connection astatine the clip accusing Pashinyan of undermining Armenia’s “spiritual unity” but did not code the assertion astir the child.

Pashinyan’s assertion sparked caller choler among the church’s followers, including Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who appeared successful a video saying that the spiritual instauration was nether attack.

Karapetyan, 59, was detained June 18, days aft the clip was posted online, and accused of calling for seizing powerfulness successful the country. Pashinyan aboriginal said the billionaire’s vigor company, Electricity Networks of Armenia, would beryllium nationalized.