Armenia’s Investigative Committee said Archbishop Arshak Khachatrian, the head of the church’s Mother See Chancellery in Echmiadzin, was taken into custody on drug-related charges. It did not elaborate.
According to Khachatrian’s lawyer, Arsen Babayan, the cleric known as a vocal critic of Pashinian is accused of having one of his aide plant drugs in the backpack of a protester who demanded Garegin’s resignation in 2018.
“We’ve never heard anything more absurd,” Babayan said, adding that his client is “staying strong as always.”
In a live video broadcast on Facebook, the lawyer said the “political” accusation is aimed at discrediting Khachatrian as part of Pashinian’s broader campaign against the supreme head of the church.
Khachatrian is the fourth bishop loyal to Garegin arrested in nearly six months. The Investigative Committee first arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian June 25 the day before Pashinian threatened to forcibly remove Garegin from the church’s Echmiadzin headquarters. Galastanian and his 17 supporters are now standing trial on coup charges denied by them.
Another outspoken archbishop, Mikael Ajapahian, was arrested on June 27 and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison on charges of calling for a violent regime change. The crackdown continued with the arrest later in October of Bishop Mkrtich Proshian, who is also Garegin’s nephew. Proshian likewise denies forcing his subordinates to attend opposition rallies held in the run-up to 2021 parliamentary elections.
Khachatrian found himself in hot water following the publication on social media in early November of a sexually explicit video purportedly featuring him. The archbishop dismissed it as fake. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, he claimed that “various officials” from Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) tried in vain to bully and blackmail him into taking “certain actions” before the scandal. He did not elaborate.
Effectively siding with Pashinian, ten other bishops and archbishops last week accused Garegin of covering up the sex scandal and demanded his resignation. The Catholicos dismissed the call. He also decided to convene on December 10 an emergency meeting of bishops that will “examine the latest developments surrounding the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.”
The ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians around the world belong, has at least 55 bishops and archbishops. In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, 27 of them, including Khachatrian, denounced the government-backed revolt and reaffirmed their allegiance to Garegin.