Security forces came to search the residence of the head of the Shirak diocese

Armenian security forces are conducting a search in the building of the Shirak diocese in connection with the case of Archbishop Mikael Ajapakhian, suspected of calling for the violent overthrow of the government. Ajapakhian's lawyer was prohibited from being present during the search.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on June 25, investigators in Armenia conducted more than 90 searches in connection with the case of preparing to seize power and detained members of the "Sacred Struggle" movement. By a court decision, Archbishop Bagrat Galstyan, the leader of the Sacred Struggle movement, and 14 other people, including former Nagorno-Karabakh parliament member David Galstyan, retired colonel Migran Makhsudyan, Dashnaktsutyun party member Igor Sargsyan, and Movses Sharbatyan (Archbishop Galstyan's assistant), have been remanded in custody.

This morning, about 30 masked people came to the residence of the head of the Shirak Diocese, Archbishop Mikael Ajapakhian, News.am reports with reference to lawyer Migran Poghosyan.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Ajapakhian is suspected under Article 422 of the Criminal Code (public calls for usurpation of power, violation of territorial integrity, renunciation of sovereignty or violent overthrow of the constitutional order), the publication says.

The archbishop is not in the diocese building; he is in Echmiadzin at a meeting of the clergy. His lawyer was not allowed into the building where the search is taking place. Clergymen are also not allowed in. The security forces told the lawyer that he would only be able to enter after a search, the publication writes.

Recall that in 2024, Bagrat Galstanyan led the protest movement "Tavush for the Motherland" (now called "Sacred Struggle"), which opposed the transfer of border territories to Azerbaijan, and was nominated by opposition forces for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia.

In May of the same year, Archbishop Mikael Ajapakhyan participated in a protest march of residents of the Shirak region, who demanded an end to the delimitation of the border with Azerbaijan.

The confrontation between the Armenian authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church intensified in 2020 against the backdrop of the 44-day Karabakh war and the authorities' desire to improve relations with Turkey. "The ruling party's agenda includes normalizing relations with Turkey, and the church is a national institution for the unity of Armenians, including spiritual and political. For the ruling party, the idea of the unity of the Armenian people is unacceptable, since they consider it an obstacle to the normalization of relations with Turkey. In Turkey itself, the Armenian diaspora is considered an enemy," political observer Hakob Badalyan told the "Caucasian Knot" in December 2024.

On May 29, Nikol Pashinyan said that in Armenia, "all the most unnecessary things are stored in churches," and was also surprised at "how much one can be false, talk about the sacred and be an atheist, trample on shrines." Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan responded by noting that since 2019 the church had repeatedly, but in vain, appealed to state bodies regarding the preservation of shrines that have the status of monuments. Pashinyan responded to the church representative's words with insults.

After this, Armenian politicians and church representatives demanded that Pashinyan apologize for insulting the church and interfering in its activities. The Hayakve initiative called on the Prosecutor General's Office to initiate a criminal case against Pashinyan. In turn, Pashinyan on June 9 called to elect a new head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.