Armenian authorities have arrested 10 priests and a bishop in the country’s central Aragatsotn region as tensions between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church continue to rise.
According to the Church’s press service, the arrests were carried out early on 15 October following coordinated raids on church properties in the region. Among those detained is Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, the head of Aragatsotn diocese and the cousin of the Armenian Catholicos, Garegin Nersisyan.
The Interior Ministry confirmed the arrests on 15 October but has not released the formal charges. A brief statement cited ‘illegal actions’ during recent rallies, though details remain unclear. The church has condemned the arrests as an attack on religious freedom and accused the authorities of political persecution.
The confrontation between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government and the Armenian Apostolic Church has deepened over the past year. The Church has been one of the most vocal critics of the government’s handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, while Pashinyan and his allies have accused the clergy of meddling in politics and serving opposition interests.
Ani Ghevondyan
Lawyer Marine Farmanyan told journalists that the raids were based on a report submitted by the NGO, the Union of Informed Citizens.
‘Daniel Ioannisyan, through the NGO he leads, sent a report. We learned about this following the decision to authorise the searches, which is currently at the Yerevan Investigative Department’, she said.
Ioannisyan confirmed to Factor TV that the detentions were based on his NGO’s report. The organisation later issued a statement clarifying that they had filed a report on 17 September with the Prosecutor General’s Office after learning that the day prior, Father Aram, the spiritual head of Hovhannavank, a church in the same region, stated on Public Television that ‘in 2021 there had been pressure within the Armenian Apostolic Church to participate in the pre-election rallies of a political force’.
‘We have no other information or details about the alleged crime or its possible perpetrators. We also note that compelling or paying people to attend a rally constitutes a crime, and the state must act against it’, the organisation added.
Tensions between the Church and the government escalated in May, when Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan emerged as the symbolic leader of a protest movement demanding Pashinyan’s resignation. The rallies eventually lost momentum and the organisers were largely detained — they are currently facing charges for attempting to seize power.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
