US lawyer and lobbyist Robert Amsterdam has arrived in Yerevan to represent the Armenian Apostolic Church amid what he called a political campaign against the church.
Prior to his arrival on Monday, Amsterdam claimed there were ‘explicit threats by Armenian authorities to deny him entry and forcibly expel him’. Amsterdam said he was travelling to Armenia ‘to meet with clients whose fundamental rights are under direct attack’, namely members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is unclear if Amsterdam’s representation of the church is related to a specific court case, or if it is a more generalised service, or a retainer.
In recent months, tensions between the church and the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have escalated, with Pashinyan, his wife Anna Hakobyan, and other members of his Civil Contract party regularly attacking the church and its clergy, using various accusations and insults.
In June, two high-ranking and influential archbishops, Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikayel Ajapahyan, were placed under two months of pre-trial detention, with charges of plotting ‘terrorist attacks and a coup d’état’ and calls for usurpation of power, respectively, along with others. Pashinyan has also suggested that Catholicos Karekin II be unseated. In addition, Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, a supporter of the church, has been arrested on similar charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
In a statement on Sunday, Amsterdam’s law firm said that ‘in recent months, senior church leaders have been subjected to public vilification, legal harassment, and blatant state interference in ecclesiastical affairs’. He also referenced Karapetyan, saying that he has ‘been targeted by the Pashinyan government in what leading observers describe as a politically motivated and unlawful campaign’.
‘Together, these measures reveal a calculated strategy to weaken the church’s influence, silence dissenting voices, and intimidate those who dare to oppose the government’s agenda’, Amsterdam’s law firm said, adding that ‘the Pashinyan government’s actions against Amsterdam’s clients in Armenia constitute a direct and escalating assault on freedom of religion and expression’.
Amsterdam and his law firm have taken on a variety of high-profile clients in human rights cases around the world, including Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Georgian businessperson Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former aide of Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. Amsterdam has also represented the Turkish government, and more recently, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which has been accused of maintaining links with the Russian Orthodox Church, an organisation closely linked with the Kremlin.
It is unclear who specifically hired Amsterdam to represent the Armenian Church. OC Media has tried to search for related filings on the US Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database, but the search function has been disabled.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
