Bishop Pargev Barseghyan has responded to recent accusations against his fellow clergyman by recalling the events of April–May 2018 and raising a pointed question: “Did the Catholicos force us to join the protests?”
In a Facebook post, Barseghyan reflects on May 20, 2018, a day when members of Armenia’s current government were participating in opposition rallies. “It was a Sunday, and I was walking toward the Mother Cathedral with my fellow clergy to attend the Holy Liturgy,” he writes.
Shortly after entering the cathedral, they were summoned by the Catholicos to the residence, where the Patriarch was closely following developments. At that time, Nikol Pashinyan had been detained, and angry protesters were planning to march to the Shengavit police station where rumors said he was being held. The Catholicos, concerned about a possible violent clash between police and demonstrators, expressed his alarm and emphasized the need to prevent bloodshed.
Barseghyan recalls that after a brief exchange with fellow clergy, they told the Patriarch: “Your Holiness, then why are we waiting?” and immediately left for the protest site.
He refrains from detailing the consequences that might have occurred had clergy not intervened between demonstrators and police, though notes that his fellow clergyman Father Zakaria has spoken extensively about it elsewhere.
Barseghyan ends his post with a rhetorical question: “Did the Catholicos force us to join the protests?”
On October 15, Armenia’s Investigative Committee, accompanied by National Security Service agents, conducted searches at the Aragatsotn Diocese headquarters and in the homes of several clergy. Dozens, including the diocesan primate Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan and staff, were taken for questioning. Courts have ordered two-month pre-trial detention for Bishop Proshyan and one-month detention for Father Garegin Arsenyan, head of the diocese’s administrative office and priest of Saint Gevorg Church in Mughni. Others have been named as witnesses. The Investigative Committee announced that Bishop Proshyan is facing public criminal prosecution under two articles of the Armenian Criminal Code: abuse of official position to obstruct electoral rights, and coercing participation in rallies using official authority.
