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RFE/RL (27 June 2025)

Satenik Kaghzvantsian, Robert Zargaryan, Artak Khulyan

Masked Armenian police were thwarted by clergy and church supporters who blocked agents as they attempted to detain a senior Armenian Apostolic Church cleric as a standoff between authorities and the church escalates.

Police and officers from Armenia’s National Security Service arrived at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on June 27 to detain Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahian, the Primate of the Shirak Diocese.

He is accused of making public statements more than a year ago that authorities say constituted a call to seize power and forcibly overthrow Armenia’s constitutional order.

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