Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday that security forces had thwarted a coup attempt allegedly involving a high-ranking cleric, as tensions escalate between his government and the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Pashinyan has been at loggerheads with senior clerics since 2020, when Catholicos Garegin II began calling for his resignation following Armenia's disastrous military defeat to archrival Azerbaijan over the then-disputed Karabakh region.
"Law enforcement officers have foiled a large-scale and sinister plan by the 'criminal-oligarchic clergy' to destabilise the situation in the Republic of Armenia and seize power," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
He shared a statement by Armenia's investigative committee, which claimed that Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan had "since November 2024 set himself the goal of changing power by means not permitted by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia."
Galstanyan – the leader of opposition Sacred Struggle movement – last year accused Pashinyan of ceding territory to Azerbaijan and led mass protests that ultimately failed to topple the prime minister.
The investigative committee said that Galstanyan "with the prior consent of several members of the movement, acquired the necessary means and tools to carry out terrorist acts and seize power."
"Searches are currently underway at the homes of Archbishop Bagrat and around 30 of his associates," it added.
A close associate of the archbishop, MP Garnik Danielyan, told journalists that "these are actions of a dictatorial regime," and called the accusations against the cleric fabricated.
The loss of Karabakh after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive in 2023 has divided Armenia, as its neighbor demands sweeping concessions in exchange for lasting peace.
Earlier this month, Pashinyan launched an unprecedented challenge to Garegin II, urging believers to remove him from office.
He has alleged that the Catholicos has a child in a blazing row that prompted fierce opposition, criticism and calls for Pashinyan to be excommunicated.
Armenia – the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion in the 4th century – grants the Armenian Apostolic Church special constitutional status and the church wields considerable influence in Armenian society.
