Armenia arrests prominent archbishop over alleged coup plot

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a person successful protests against the PM, is accused of a crippled to overthrow the government.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says information officials person thwarted a coup crippled involving a starring cleric from Armenia’s nationalist church.

The apprehension of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, person of the absorption question Holy Struggle, connected Wednesday marks a crisp escalation successful Pashinyan’s standoff with the enactment of the almighty Apostolic Church.

The church’s leader, Catholicos Garegin II, has called for Pashinyan’s resignation aft Armenia mislaid a warfare to Azerbaijan successful 2020, portion Galstanyan, the primate of the Diocese of Tavush, led wide protests past year, aiming to unseat the premier minister, channelling wide nationalist choler implicit subject defeats and territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

“Law enforcement officers prevented a ample and sinister program by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy’ to destabilize the Republic of Armenia and prehend power,” Pashinyan wrote connected Facebook connected Wednesday, sharing a connection by Armenia’s Investigative Committee.

The committee said it had filed transgression charges against Galstanyan and 15 others, who they said had “acquired the means and tools indispensable to perpetrate a violent onslaught and prehend power”.

A full of 14 radical had been arrested, investigators said, without naming them.

The committee’s connection claimed that Galstanyan — who has antecedently expressed his tendency to regenerate Pashinyan arsenic premier minister, though helium is incapable to clasp bureau owed to being a dual Armenian-Canadian national — sought to overthrow the authorities with the assistance of his supporters.

It said the radical had recruited astir 1,000 people, chiefly erstwhile soldiers and constabulary officers, and divided them into onslaught groups, assigning each a task to destabilise the country, by blocking roads, inciting unit oregon blocking the internet.

It claimed that the radical had acquired weapons, explosives, and different unsafe materials successful mentation for the plot.

It said searches were nether mode astatine the homes of Galstanyan and astir 30 of his associates.

The committee besides published audio recordings purporting to uncover Galstanyan and others discussing plans for the alleged coup plot.

‘We are coming’

News.am, an Armenian quality website, published footage of Galstanyan being taken from his location into a car by masked constabulary officers, and driven away.

“Evil, perceive cautiously – immoderate you do, you person precise small clip left. Hold on, we are coming,” helium said, successful an evident notation to Pashinyan, arsenic a assemblage extracurricular shouted “Nikol is simply a traitor”, the AFP quality bureau reported.

A lawmaker adjacent to Galstanyan, Garnik Danielyan, said the raids were “actions of a dictatorial regime” and said the accusations against the archbishop were fabricated, AFP reported.

Wednesday’s developments travel the apprehension of different salient authorities hostile earlier this month, erstwhile Russian-Armenian existent property billionaire Samvel Karapetyan was detained connected accusations of making nationalist calls to usurp power, the Reuters quality bureau reported.

Divided nation

Armenia’s humiliating subject decision by Azerbaijan, resulting successful the 2023 nonaccomplishment of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave successful Azerbaijan, has near bitter divisions successful Armenia, notably betwixt Pashinyan and the Apostolic Church.

Earlier this month, Pashinyan unsuccessfully attempted to oust Garegin II arsenic the caput of the church, calling connected the faithful to elite a caller spiritual person to “liberate” the church, AFP reported.

Russia, a pact state of Armenia, said the alleged coup crippled was an interior substance for Yerevan, but had an involvement successful calm and bid being maintained, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies