Armenia’s Civil Contract denies PM gave green light for church raids

Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party has dismissed suggestions that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent social media post was a directive for law enforcement to carry out searches in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Speaking to journalists in parliament, Artur Hovhannisyan, secretary of the Civil Contract faction, emphasised that Pashinyan’s statement did not amount to an order for a police operation, Caliber.Az reports. 

“There is no call to action for law enforcement in what the Prime Minister wrote. There has never been a case where he announced law enforcement actions in advance,” Hovhannisyan said.

He addressed the law enforcement operation that took place at the Mother See on June 28, stating that the search was triggered by the presence of an individual who was required to appear before authorities.

Pashinyan’s controversial post earlier in the day targeted the Catholicos of All Armenians and asserted that no location in Etchmiadzin should be exempt from police scrutiny. He also labeled attempts to shield arrested individuals as criminal.

Tensions between the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) and Pashinyan’s government have been intensifying since Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 Second Karabakh War. The rift deepened in May 2024 following the return of four border villages to Azerbaijan, which sparked widespread protests led by the AAC and opposition figures such as Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the “Holy Struggle” movement.

In response to mounting opposition, Armenian authorities have conducted more than 90 searches and detained over a dozen clerics and activists on charges ranging from terrorism to plotting a coup. Pashinyan has publicly accused the AAC leadership, including Catholicos Garegin II, of corruption and moral misconduct.

By Sabina Mammadli