Second Armenian Archbishop held as Pashinyan's crackdown widens

Armenia has arrested a second prominent cleric on charges of plotting against the government marking the latest escalation in a clampdown on outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reported APA court in Yerevan on Saturday ordered Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan to be held in pretrial detention for two months according to his lawyer Ara Zohrabyan Zohrabyan called the decision obviously illegal and unfounded confirming his client would appealState prosecutors accuse Ajapahyan of publicly calling for an armed ouster of the governmentOn Friday security forces confronted crowds at the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church outside Yerevan as they attempted to arrest Ajapahyan Videos circulated on social media showing clergymen jostling with police while nearby cathedral bells rang outAfter Armeniarsquos National Security Service urged Ajapahyan to present himself to authorities local media showed him entering the building of Armeniarsquos Investigative Committee in his grey robes reported API have never hidden and I am not going to hide now Ajapahyan told reporters on Friday I say that what is happening now is lawlessness I have never been and am not a threat to this country the main threat is in the governmentLast year tens of thousands of demonstrators called for Pashinyanrsquos removal after Armenia agreed to hand over control of several border villages to Azerbaijan and to normalise relations between the neighbours and bitter rivalsOn Wednesday authorities arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan who leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement He was also accused of plotting a sabotage campaign to overthrow Pashinyan charges that his lawyer dismissed as fictionMembers of Sacred Struggle which has bitterly opposed the handover of the border villages accused the government of cracking down on political rights AP reported While the territorial concession was the movementrsquos core issue it has broadened to include a wide array of complaints about Pashinyan who assumed power in 2018In another development RussianArmenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan another vocal critic of Pashinyan was arrested last week on charges of calling for the governmentrsquos overthrow which he deniedAccording to AP Armenia and Azerbaijan have been embroiled in territorial disputes since the early 1990s a period when various parts of the Soviet Union sought independence from Moscow Following the USSRrsquos collapse in 1991 ethnic Armenian separatist forces backed by the Armenian military gained control of Azerbaijanrsquos region of Karabakh and nearby territoriesHowever in 2020 Azerbaijan recaptured significant swathes of territory that had been held by Armenian forces for nearly three decades A swift military campaign in September 2023 saw Azerbaijan fully reclaim control of Karabakh and Armenia subsequently handed over the contested border villagesPashinyan has recently endeavoured to normalise relations with Azerbaijan Last week he also visited Azerbaijanrsquos key ally Turkiye in an effort to mend a historic riftTuumlrkiye and Armenia share a more than centuryold dispute concerning the deaths of an estimated 15 million Armenians in massacres deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Tuumlrkiye Historians largely consider these events a genocide Tuumlrkiye vehemently rejects this label acknowledging that many died during that era but insisting the death toll is inflated and resulted from civil unrestAttempts to impeach Pashinyan who came to power in 2018 have been unsuccessfulAlthough territorial concessions formed the core issue for Sacred Struggle their complaints against Pashinyan have expanded considerably as the Apostolic Churchrsquos relationship with the government deteriorated On 8 June Pashinyan called for church leader Karekin II to resign accusing him of fathering a child despite a vow of celibacyThe Church at the time released a statement accusing Pashinyan of undermining Armeniarsquos spiritual unity but did not address the claim about the childWith inputs from AP