Armenian authorities have charged and jailed Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, head of the Aragatsotn Diocese, intensifying a growing confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Proshyan was remanded into custody for two months on 16 October, accused of obstructing electoral rights and coercing participation in political rallies — charges he and his lawyers have denounced as baseless and politically motivated.
The bishop, a cousin of Catholicos Garegin II, leads one of the church’s most prominent dioceses. Following the arrest, the Catholicos met with the priests of the diocese, expressing his support for the priests detained during the law-enforcement raids on 15 October, when National Security Service officers searched the homes of at least a dozen priests and detained several clergy members.
According to the church, seven priests were taken in for questioning, many of them held for hours without access to lawyers.
Lawyer Ara Zohrabyan, who represents the bishop, said Proshyan was accused of using his clerical authority to pressure priests during the 2021 parliamentary elections. ‘They claim he coerced people to attend unlawful gatherings’, Zohrabyan said. ‘But even if such words were spoken, that would constitute political expression, not a criminal act’.
Zohrabyan added that part of the alleged evidence is based on testimony from Father Aram Asatryan, a priest at the Hovhannavank Church, who has since denied making any statement implicating the bishop.
The raids were reportedly initiated following a complaint filed by the NGO Union of Informed Citizens, led by civic activist Daniel Ioannisyan. According to lawyer Marine Farmanyan, ‘Daniel Ioannisyan, through the NGO he heads, sent a report. We learned about this only after the court authorised the searches’.
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The organisation later confirmed that it had submitted a report to the Prosecutor General’s Office on 17 September, after Father Aram stated on public television that some clergy were pressured in 2021 to attend pre-election rallies of a political bloc. The NGO said it had no further details about possible perpetrators but stressed that ‘compelling or paying people to attend rallies is a crime, and the state must act against it.’
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin condemned the detentions as ‘an illegal criminal pursuit’ and ‘another manifestation of the authorities’ anti-church campaign’. It said the government was using legal mechanisms to silence dissent within the clergy.
The ruling Civil Contract party denied that any political directives were issued to law enforcement agencies. Government supporters insist the operation targeted criminal conduct, not religious activity.
