Armenian authorities have raided the homes of dozens of opposition figures, including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, following which he and 13 others were arrested for allegedly plotting ‘terrorist attacks and a coup d’état’.
On Wednesday afternoon, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said they had charged 16 people and arrested 14 others.
As a result of nearly 90 searches, the Investigative Committee claimed to have found swathes of evidence. This included firearms and ammunition, ‘action plans’, lists of recruited people, a list of people to be appointed to executive position ‘after the forcible seizure of power’, and ‘detailed planning of illegal actions to be carried out by the criminal group’.
After reports of the raids emerged on Wednesday morning, the Investigative Committee said the authorities thwarted the plot allegedly led by Galstanyan. The committee said that over 1,000 people had been recruited since January 2025 and that they had already acquired explosives.
Sharing the Investigative Committee’s statement, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote that the authorities ‘prevented a major and despicable “criminal-oligarchic-clerical” plan to destabilise […] Armenia and usurp power’.
The authorities suggested that the coup had been planned from November 2024, after Galstanyan failed to achieve his plan of assuming power through mass protests through his movement, the Holy Struggle.
‘In order to achieve this goal, with the prior agreement of several participants in the movement, he has acquired the necessary means and tools to commit terrorism and seize power within the group, as well as having intentionally created other conditions, thus preparing to usurp power’, the statement read.
The authorities claimed Galstanyan had been recruiting his followers to form ‘strike teams’ intended to carry out terrorist acts aimed at overthrowing the government and seizing power.
According to the Investigative Committee, during meetings with participants and supporters of the Holy Struggle, Galstanyan ‘categorically ruled out’ assuming power via elections. Instead, Galstanyan announced that implementation of the movement’s ultimate goal would be ‘not through the logic of gatherings, but through mutually agreed-upon violent action by small strike groups at a convenient moment’.
The committee alleged that the movement decided to form up to 250 such units consisting of 25 military-trained persons, mostly former military servicemembers and ex-police officers, each with specific objectives. They were allegedly to be tasked with creating ‘an uncontrollable situation’ throughout Armenia within 24 to 36 hours.
The Investigative Committee said the conspirators had obtained tools and data for blocking roads in Yerevan and the regions, paralysing traffic, carrying out explosions, damaging power and internet cables, ‘hinder or even [prevent] the movement of relevant police forces’, hacking the government’s websites, and eventually forcing the government to step down.
The Investigative Committee also released audio recordings they claim were of the Holy Struggle’s leaders and members discussing the coup.
On Tuesday, Civic.am, a news outlet affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party, published a seven page document which it claimed was ‘the opposition’s coup plan’.
According to the document, the church, as well as recently detained Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, ex-presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, and Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, among others, were listed as ‘human resources’ to be used in the coup. The documents say the movement intended to conclude its operations on 21 September, Armenia’s Independence Day.
OC Media was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the document.
The Prosecutor General's Office has sent the publication to the Investigative Committee.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Galstanyan heads Holy Struggle, formerly the Tavush for the Motherland movement, which 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 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.
‘Shooting two people under the wall’
Galstanyan has been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, organise mass disturbances, and plotting a coup, Armenpress quoted his lawyer Sergey Harutyunyan as saying. Harutyunyan added that Galstanyan maintained his innocence and called the charges ‘political persecution’.
Aside from Galstanyan’s home, searches were conducted in the homes of the members of the Supreme Body of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which is part of the opposition Armenia Alliance, as well as the home of former Syunik Governor Vahe Hakobyan.
The movement also reported that searches took place in the house of Artur Sargsyan, an Armenia Alliance MP.
When being taken by the authorities, Galstanyan declared that ‘nothing can take us off our path’.
In an apparent address to Pashinyan, by calling him ‘evil’, Galstanyan said no matter what he had planned, ‘you don’t have much time, hold on, we’ll come’.
Armenian authorities confiscated some items from Galstanyan’s house in packages and in response to reporters’ questions refrained from commenting on its content. Instead, lawyer Sergey Harutyunyan, as reported by Civilnet, claimed that it contained coloured flares, for use in protests.
The Investigative Committee published a total of seven recordings, which appeared to be edited, of the discussion of the protests. The people recorded could be heard insulting Armenians, calling them ‘an animal nation’ and ‘donkeys’. The recordings also included subtitles of the conversations.
One person, ostensibly Galstanyan, is heard suggesting paying $100-$250 to 10 young people to pour petrol on buses during the protests.
In another recording, the same person is heard suggesting shooting ‘two people under the wall, throw 15 others in prison’ and to later compensate the families of those killed ‘for life, and they’ll even be happy’.
The person can also be heard saying the protests should be continuous and that they ‘must resolve the issue in a single day’.
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 Ktrich’, referring to Karekin II, the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church and ‘the support of Samo’, referring to Samvel Karapetyan.
Pashinyan reiterated his claim that Karapetyan was the ‘sponsor of power outages’ in Armenia.
Unlike the documents published by government affiliated media on Tuesday, which were met with scepticism by users on social media, the recordings appeared to contain more solid evidence of the veracity of the Investigative Committee’s claims.
However, CivilNet cited another of Galstanyan’s lawyers, Hovhannes Khudoyan, as suggesting that the recordings were artificially generated, and adding that they appeared to be edited.
Following the arrests, Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Karekin II held their second meeting within a month.
Ter-Petrosyan’s spokesperson, Arman Musinyan, said the pair discussed the current situation in Armenia and also Karapetyan’s arrest for what they called a ‘usual political statement’.
‘According to the president’s assessment, Pashinyan is the embodiment of defeat. He disgracefully lost the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] war and will certainly be defeated in the war he has declared against the Armenian Church as well’, he said.
