Supporters of the Armenian church have prevented the authorities’ arrest of Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan at Etchmiadzin Cathedral, whom they have accused of making public calls for usurping powers. Ajapahyan has willingly surrendered himself to the authorities the same evening.
Armenian National Security Service (NSS) officers arrived at Etchmiadzin’s grounds on Friday following reports of a motion to arrest Ajapahyan, the head of the Shirak Diocese.
The authorities have accused Ajapahyan of making public calls for usurping powers, quoting him as allegedly saying that it was ‘necessary to carry out a military coup in Armenia’.
While criminal proceedings against the archbishop were announced on Thursday, the authorities say that they had been launched earlier on 17 June.
Earlier this week, 15 others were detained for seeking to violently overthrow the Armenian government. Among those detained was Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, another high-profile clergyman and the leader of the anti-government Holy Struggle movement.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Law enforcement officers have failed to apprehend Ajapahyan at Etchmiadzin as supporters of the Armenian Church and its clergy clashed with the police.
On Friday afternoon, the NSS issued a statement announcing that they intended to take Ajapahyan to court to detain him as a preventive measure. The agency urged ‘all citizens to refrain from escalating the situation and not to obstruct the implementation of legal decisions’ and Ajapahyan ‘not to hide [...] and to present himself’ to NSS agents waiting for him to surrender himself outside the cathedral’s grounds.
The NSS later admitted to having failed to apprehend Ajapahyan, saying they decided to ‘withdraw’ from the area ‘based on security considerations and to prevent a possible and deliberate escalation of the situation’.
‘Cases of obstructing the lawful actions of law enforcement bodies will be subject to legal assessment’, the statement concluded.
RFE/RL reported that Ajapahyan's lawyer said that the law enforcement agencies had not had not summoned the archbishop for questioning, neither by phone call nor by notice.
Following the withdrawal, the authorities announced they were launching an investigation into an ‘obstruction of justice’.
‘The threat is sitting in the government’
Prior to the clashes at the Mother See, Ajapahyan said that he was willingly surrendering himself to the police.
‘What is happening is an absolute illegality, but I have never hidden anywhere and I am not going to hide now either. I don't want to create the impression that I am hiding behind my brothers’ backs. [...] They have come after me, and I will go’, Ajapahyan said.
‘I am not a threat to this country; the threat is sitting in the government’, Ajapahyan said in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nikol Pashiyan, whom he referred to as a ‘madman’.
Catholicos Karekin II has expressed support for the archbishop, saying the Church would send a lawyer to escort him as he surrendered himself.
‘We will gather there, have our discussions, and draw conclusions regarding our future actions. It is unequivocal that we will all make every effort to ensure that justice prevails’, Karekin II said.
Prior to that, the clergymen present at the scene said they would not allow the authorities to arrest Ajapahyan.
As Ajapahyan was walking toward the gates of the cathedral, accompanied by Karekin II and other clergymen, small clashes took place between members of the clergy and their supporters and the police.
Opposition MPs were also present at the cathedral.
After the police failed to detain Ajapahyan, he returned to the cathedral grounds. RFE/RL has reported that the bells of Etchmiadzin had been ringing ‘non-stop’, with a clergyman telling them it was a ‘call for help’.
According to reports, the police conducted enhanced surveillance on the Yerevan Vagharshapat highway, stopping cars and searching them.
Pashinyan has refrained from commenting on the developments.
Ajapahyan walks to Yerevan to surrender himself
At around 15:30, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan announced that, together with his lawyers, Ajapahyan would present himself to the Investigative Committee.
The statement was made as he was standing next to Ajapahyan before they were to depart.
Zohrabyan also noted that earlier today, the NSS agents were asked to wait until the end of a meeting that was taking place at Etchmiadzin that Ajapahyan was heading, after which the archbishop would surrender himself. Zohrabyan claimed the NSS agents refused this request.
Ajapahyan has also noted that the authorities could have arrested him any time between 17 June and 27 June, saying the NSS deliberately chose to arrest him on Friday ahead of the meeting ‘to show their power within the walls of the Mother See’.
‘I am not afraid of anything, the accusation is completely fabricated, illegal. I have never hidden, I am not hiding. I do not renounce what I said’, Ajapahyan said.
Despite his request to supporters and other members of the clergy to let him go and present himself to the authorities, his attendance was again prevented after people blocked his car from leaving the grounds.
Following this, Ajapahyan announced his intention to walk to Yerevan. He then began his march, despite calls by his supporters and clergy not to do so.
The distance between the cathedral and the Investigative Committee building is 25 kilometres.
However, shortly after leaving the cathedral grounds, while still in the town of Vagharshapat, Ajapahyan got in a car to continue his journey.
He reached the Investigative Committee building by 18:00.
While Ajapahyan was en route to Yerevan, Pashinyan broke his silence with multiple posts on social media. In one of the posts, he wrote that ‘it is obvious why [Ajapahyan] is hiding from law enforcement. If the court imposes a one or two month detention, how will the [archbishop] live without a woman?’
Pashinyan’s statement appeared to have been a reply to a remark Ajapahyan had made in response to accusations of Pashinyan that high-ranking clergymen had broken their vows of celibacy.
‘Let any of those loudmouths try living a month without a woman’, Ajapahyan had said at the time.
In its statement on Friday, the Church said ‘the use of force against citizens is condemnable and unacceptable’.
They also announced that Ajapahyan was traveling to Yerevan to appear before the Investigative Committee, ‘despite not being properly notified’.
They also urged their supporters ‘not to give in to provocations, to remain vigilant and to continue their support by all legal means’.
Both Ajapahyan and Galstanyan are among the most influential high-ranking members of the Armenian Church.
Galstanyan rose to prominence as an opposition figure in 2024 with his movement, then known as the Tavush for the Motherland. The movement was first conceived in protest against the border delimitation process with Azerbaijan, which began in Tavush that year.
The arrests came amidst a deepening tensions between the Armenian government and the Armenian Church, with Pashinyan and other members of his Civil Contract party continuously hitting out at Karekin II, most notably accusing him and other clergymen of breaking their celibacy vows.
The spat reached its boiling point with the arrest of 15 people the authorities have accused of seeking to overthrow the government through violent protests and the use of several armed and trained units composed of former military personnel.
