Top Armenian cleric detained over alleged drug scandal UPDATED

Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of Etchmiadzin, has been taken into custody in connection with an alleged illegal drug trafficking case, Armenian authorities confirmed.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under the charge of “illegal sale of narcotics by a group of individuals in a public place,” Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

Khachatryan was detained on December 4 evening, according to his lawyer, Arsen Babayan.

Babayan later stated that, according to the investigation, in 2018 Archbishop Khachatryan allegedly planted drugs in the bag of an activist involved in a protest calling for the resignation of Catholicos of All Armenians, Garegin II. The alleged act was intended to discredit the demonstrators.

The protests occurred following the rise of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, when some of his supporters launched the movement “New Armenia – New Patriarch” targeting Garegin II. The initiative, however, eventually lost momentum.

Archbishop Khachatryan is the fourth high-ranking cleric to be detained in recent months. Others currently held in custody include Archbishops Bagrat Galstanyan, Mikael Ajapahian, Primate of the Diocese of Shirak, and Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, Primate of the Diocese of Aragatsotn.

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Armenian Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of Etchmiadzin, has been taken into custody.

The development was reported by lawyer Arsen Babayan, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

Authorities have not disclosed the charges or the circumstances surrounding the detention, leaving the reasons for Archbishop Khachatryan’s arrest unclear.

Subsequently, the lawyer took to social media to clarify that Archbishop Khachatryan’s detention is entirely unrelated to the controversial video. Babayan indicated that further details would be provided in due course.

On November 27, a statement signed by a group of Armenian Apostolic Church hierarchs surfaced, accusing the Catholicos of allegedly attempting to conceal what they described as Archbishop Khachatryan’s “blasphemous act” and, in doing so, “shielding blasphemy,” in reference to the scandal stemming from the earlier leaked intimate video. The Investigative Committee later effectively confirmed that the video’s content bears no connection to him.

On November 29, a subsequent statement emerged in which ten hierarchs, including archbishops and bishops, urged the Catholicos to voluntarily abdicate the throne. The dissenting clerics accused the Church’s head of exercising arbitrary governance, interfering in political affairs, and engaging in other actions they deemed incompatible with the responsibilities and spiritual mission of his office.

By Vafa Guliyeva