The Union of Armenians of Scandinavia issued a statement condemning what it described as political persecution by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan against the Armenian Apostolic Church and his opponents. According to the statement, “Pashinyan continues his political repression by trampling on the law and every moral principle.”
Cited by Aravot.am, the union accused Armenia’s law enforcement and judiciary of serving as “tools of political persecution” under the prime minister’s control, turning Armenia into a dictatorship.
They noted that after businessman Samvel Karapetyan publicly supported the Church, he was arrested. This was followed by the imprisonment of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the Sacred Struggle movement, and twelve of his supporters on charges of attempting a coup. The union also pointed to the June 28 arrest of Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan for his public statements, calling it part of a wider pattern of staged actions and baseless accusations. His detention, they said, was accompanied by “a shameful assault on the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Catholicosate.”
The statement claims the government’s motives include:
a) silencing dissent,
b) instilling fear among the public,
c) seizing the Armenian Apostolic Church,
d) dividing the Armenian people,
e) mocking national identity and values.
The union strongly condemned the actions of Armenia’s prime minister, police, National Security Service, and judiciary, and called on national forces and the Armenian diaspora to unite around the Armenian Apostolic Church and resist what they call a cold war waged against the Church and the Armenian people.
During a recent press conference, Pashinyan said the Catholicosate will be “liberated” the way Armenia was freed from Serzh Sargsyan in 2018. He later called for a “Great Spiritual Gathering” in Etchmiadzin’s central square. On Facebook, Pashinyan proposed a reform plan: removing the current Catholicos, appointing a celibate and morally upright priest as acting Catholicos who would be ineligible for the throne, and suspending elections until a new Apostolic Church Charter is ratified based on the Church Canon.
