“No one has shown such a hostile attitude towards the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church except for the Turks, the [Russian] Tsar and the Communists, meaning Nikol Pashinian has joined that list,” said Artur Khachatrian of the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Khachatrian reacted to the arrests of Bishop Mkrtich Proshian and at least 12 other priests from a church diocese headed by him. Proshian was charged with forcing his subordinates to attend opposition rallies in 2021. His lawyers dismissed the accusation. The legal status of the other detainees remained unclear as of Wednesday evening.
The arrests came amid Pashinian’s continuing efforts to depose Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the church critical of him and, in particular, his policy towards Azerbaijan. Khachatrian claimed that the premier wants to discredit the ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians belong, before gaining control of it.
Tigran Abrahamian, a senior lawmaker from another opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, similarly linked the crackdown to Pashinian’s declared plans to occupy the church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin and evict Garegin from it.
Pashinian urged supporters in July to be ready to “free” the seat of the Catholicos. He has insisted in recent weeks that he has not abandoned his efforts to oust Garegin despite a backlash from opposition groups and other supporters of the Catholicos.
Edmon Marukian, a former Pashinian ally leading the opposition Bright Armenia party, insisted that the latest arrests are part of those efforts.
“I am sure that this case will be a futile affair, but once again it will leave a stigma on our law-enforcement agencies,” said Marukian.
Meanwhile, Narek Babayan, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party, defended the arrests and denied any political motives behind them.
“It will not be news or a surprise to many citizens of Armenia if it turns out that some church ministers were involved in various illegal activities,” said Babayan.
The criminal case was ostensibly opened in response to a “crime report” filed by Daniel Ioannisian, a civic activist leading a Western-funded nongovernmental organization. Ioannisian cited a dissident priest’s allegations made in a September 16 interview with Armenian state television. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service earlier in the day, he insisted that he did not coordinate with the authorities.
“All over the world, human rights defenders … protect human rights from various state institutions and bodies that overstep their powers and violate human rights,” Marukian said in this regard. “For some reason, the opposite is true in Armenia: a group that is supposed to protect human rights reports against people.”