They raided the church headquarters in Echmiadzin shortly after announcing that Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian has been charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the Armenian government. The criminal proceedings came two days after another outspoken archbishop was arrested on coup charges amid Pashinian’s controversial bid to depose Catholicos Garegin II and other senior clergymen.
Ajapahian dismissed the accusations when masked officers of the National Security Service (NSS) arrived at the Echmiadzin seat of Garegin in the morning to take him into custody. Although he seemed willing to turn himself in, other clergymen and laymen present there intervened to block the arrest, sparking scuffles with the NSS officers and other law-enforcement personnel. Garegin was also at the scene, trying to calm the tensions.
Hundreds of interior troops and special police were deployed around the church’s Mother See in the following hours. They tried to storm the compound early in the afternoon but met strong resistance from hundreds of people who gathered there in response to appeals from the church and opposition leaders.
The security forces retreated after jostling with the protesters for about 30 minutes. An NSS vehicle that was parked outside Garegin’s residence and carried officers planning to arrest Ajapahian left the scene shortly afterwards.
Moments later, an NSS statement issued a statement urging Ajapahian not to “hide from law enforcement” and warning his supporters to “avoid escalating the situation.”
A lawyer representing Ajapahian, Mihran Poghosian, insisted that he is not hiding from justice. Poghosian argued that investigators never summoned the archbishop for interrogations and what he was always “available” to them.
“I am not going to hide,” Ajapahian told reporters in the morning. “I don’t want to hide behind my brother’s backs.”
“I’m not a threat to this country. The threat sits in the government,” he said, calling Pashinian a “madman.”
The archbishop heads the Armenian Church diocese encompassing the country’s northwestern Shirak province. His office in the provincial capital Gyumri was searched by police in the morning.
Ajapahanian stands accused of making “public calls for the seizure of power and violent overthrow of the constitutional order.” The accusation is understood to stem from comments made by him in February 2024. Critics say the fact that the authorities waited for 16 months to prosecute him is further proof that the case is politically motivated and part of Pashinian’s campaign against the top clergy.