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.
