Armenia arrests 15 for plotting coup as a new high-ranking clergyman is charged for calls to usurp power
Several courts in Yerevan have ruled to remand Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and 14 others accused of plotting to overthrow the Armenian government in pre-trial detention for two months.
The 15 detained were accused by the Armenian authorities of plotting terrorist attacks and a coup d’état. The crackdown began with the arrest of Galstanyan, a high-profile opposition figure and archbishop who leads the anti-government Holy Struggle movement, on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Investigative Committee reported that as a result of continued searches, ‘items confirming the actions attributed to the defendants’ were again found, including explosive devices, which they claimed were ‘intended for damaging street electrical wiring and internet connection cables’.
However, the attached photos show a large amount of coloured flares, boxes of firecrackers, PCs, and laptops.
Alongside Galstanyan, the authorities raided the homes of dozens of opposition figures on Wednesday.
Galstanyan’s Holy Struggle was formerly known as the Tavush for the Motherland movement and was founded in the spring of 2024 as a protest movement against the border delimitation process with Azerbaijan, which began in Tavush, a province located on the border.
The movement gradually grew into a series of anti-government protests demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation. The demonstrations were attended by thousands of people — a number not seen since the 2018 revolution that brought Pashinyan to power — but later faded.
On Thursday, the Prosecutor's Office initiated criminal proceedings against another high-ranking clergyman, Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan, accusing him of making public calls for usurping power.
‘It is necessary to carry out a military coup in Armenia’, Ajapahyan reportedly said.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
‘Another October 27 has been prevented’
A day after the raids and the arrests, Pashinyan proposed to ‘nominate the most effective employees’ of Armenian law enforcement bodies involved in the uncovering of the case for a state award.
Pashinyan’s proposal came during a meeting with his cabinet.
As reported by Armenpress, expressing his gratitude to all representatives of the law enforcement system, Pashinyan noted that ‘a crime being prepared against our statehood, Armenia’s security, and stability has been uncovered’.
Pashinyan also cited claims that ‘another 27 October’ was prevented in Armenia — in reference to a terror attack that took place on 27 October 1999 involving a group of five suspects who assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliamentary Speaker Karen Demirchyan, and six other ministers and MPs in parliament. Even though the assassins were sentenced and jailed, the case is largely believed to remain unresolved.
‘Others are asking whether the law enforcement system of 1999 could have prevented the 27 October terror attack. I believe this is a question that must be answered reliably. I hope our law enforcement system will make efforts toward finding that answer’, Pashinyan said.
A Pashinyan ‘deepfake’
Again on Thursday, Pashinyan’s spokesperson, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, announced that an audio deepfake purporting to be Pashinyan’s voice has been circulating online.
Without disclosing its content, Baghdasaryan only expressed confidence that attempts ‘to mislead the society and generate disinformation with such fabricated methods are doomed to failure’.
The generated audio appeared to suggest that the raids and arrests on Wednesday were done on the instructions of Pashinyan and that all supporting evidence used to charge the suspects, including audio recordings discussing coup plans attributed to them, were artificially generated.
‘Also, create some audio recordings using Bagrat’s [Archbishop Galstanyan] voice, so the people hear and believe they were plotting an assassination attempt against me. [At the same time], we will scare Karekin [II]’s mafia. Let them know too that we can easily fabricate [charges] against them as well. [The case] of Tashir’s Samo attests to that’, the purported audio recording dismissed by Baghdasaryan as a deepfake said.
The fact-checking platform FIP noted that Pashinyan’s voice in the recording had a ‘suspicious accent’, and with the help of online tools, proved it to be AI-generated.
The audio recordings in question were published by the Investigative Committee on Wednesday, which claimed they were of the Holy Struggle’s leaders and members discussing the coup. Individuals in the recordings could be heard insulting Armenians and discussing deadly attacks as part of the plot.
As the content shook Armenian society, some supporters of Holy Struggle suggested that the audio could be AI-generated or the content could have been manipulated, as the recordings appeared to have been edited.
While the opposition has yet to present any evidence to prove the recordings were manipulated or fake, they have noticed other blemishes in content presented by the authorities as evidence of a coup plot.
Christine Vardanyan, an MP from the opposition Armenia Alliance faction, noted in a Facebook post that documents the authorities have shared and claimed to detail an action plan for the plot were dated for execution in 2024.
In another post, Vardanyan pointed out that the photos released by the authorities to support the terrorism narrative also included weapons licenses. She further claimed that the bullets shown in the same image had already been fired.
‘In other words, they accuse people of committing terrorism with hunting weapons and used bullets’, Vardanyan concluded.
‘The Mother See will pursue justice’
On Wednesday evening, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin expressed its ‘deep concern’ regarding the raids and charges brought against Galstanyan and his supporters, with its Supreme Spiritual Council issuing a statement vowing to come to the defence of those detained.
Pointing to statements made by Pashinyan and his party members regarding the case, the church noted that public trust in the legal process was ‘undermined’ by their remarks ‘with evident political intent — to direct the actions of law enforcement authorities’.
Pashinyan and other members of the ruling Civil Contract party shared the recordings with highlights of the plotted actions, claiming that it was to be carried out ‘with the blessing of Ktrij’, referring to Catholics Karekin II by his birth name, and the support of Samvel Karapetyan.
The church condemned the attempt to link the plot to the church, seeing it as part of the authorities’ broader ‘anti-church campaign’.
‘The Mother See will pursue justice through all lawful means and calls upon the relevant authorities to refrain from political manipulation and to act in full accordance with the constitution and laws of the Republic of Armenia, upholding the principle of the presumption of innocence’, the statement concluded.
Following the arrests, Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and Karekin II held their second meeting within a month. Pashinyan again criticised Ter-Petrosyan after his meeting with the catholicos, calling the former president a ‘state-ruining scourge’ and Karekin II a ‘church-ruining scourge’.
In another post on Facebook, Pashinyan continued attacking Ter-Petrosyan, accusing him of turning Armenia into a ‘puppet state’.
‘The main characteristics [of Ter-Petrosyan] — coward, lacks willpower, irresponsible, [and] has puppet tendencies. He is lazy, foul-mouthed, gossipy, narcissistic, arrogant. He uses every interaction with a person against that person. He hates people’, Pashinyan wrote of his former ally.
Earlier in June, Pashinyan, along with members of Civil Contract, accused Ter-Petrosyan, of being ‘the founder of the practice of election fraud’ in Armenia, following the latter’s visit to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, where he ‘expressed his full support’ to Karekin II amidst ongoing tensions between the government and the church.
At the time, Ter-Petrosyan ‘strongly condemn[ed] the unconstitutional encroachment’ of the Armenian authorities on the Armenian Church.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Yerevan removes screens expressing support for Karapetyan
On Wednesday, the Yerevan municipality removed advertising screens from the central Northern Avenue that displayed Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan’s image alongside the text: ‘Freedom for Samvel Karapetyan’, which had been placed near the entrances of his Tashir Street Mall.
RFE/RL reported that despite the spokesperson of the municipality, Hayk Kostanyan, claiming that the screens did not comply with the standards for placing advertisements, he failed to specify which specific standards were violated by the mall.
Karapetyan’s supporters, according to the media, claimed that they had relevant documents for the installation of the screens, stressing that the venue was private, and that the authorities did not have the right to remove the screens.
Karapetyan was placed in pre-trial detention on charges of calling for the usurpation of power in Armenia on 19 June. His arrest followed remarks he had made in support of the church.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
As news of the alleged coup made international headlines, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that it was ‘an internal matter for Armenia’ and that Russia was ‘interested in the preservation of law and order in Armenia, so that Armenia is a prosperous, stable country, friendly to Russia’.
Peskov also commented on Karepetyan’s arrest, saying that since the tycoon was a Russian citizen, Moscow remained in touch with Yerevan regarding his case.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
