The Armenian government under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan faces mounting accusations of trampling religious freedom and free speech following the arrests of numerous clergy members. British Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh confronted Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at a Council of Europe meeting last week, highlighting the regime’s crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church as a blatant assault on Christian independence and democratic principles.
Tensions boiled over after Pashinyan’s 2018 Velvet Revolution ascent, exacerbated by Armenia’s humiliating defeats in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and subsequent territorial concessions to Azerbaijan in 2023–2024. Catholicos Karekin II, the Church’s supreme leader, has vocally condemned the government’s foreign policy failures, aligning with opposition protests demanding accountability. In retaliation, authorities have jailed one-third to one-half of the Church’s bishops on charges of dissent.
Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was sentenced to two years in September for allegedly inciting an undemocratic overthrow, based on his News.am interview: “I called for a coup to save the country from this madman… This is not just a call, it must be done.” Protesters, through a petition, denounced Pashinyan’s political persecution as a threat to democracy, trust, and the rule of law, urging an end to the repression. Pashinyan defends the moves as purging “anti-Christian” and “anti-state” elements to foster a “real, pure, and state-centred Church”—rhetoric evoking Soviet-era control.
Leigh praised the Church as “one of the last bastions of independent thought,” accusing the government of arresting bishops to silence opposition and violating Council of Europe standards on religious and speech freedoms. Mirzoyan brushed off the claims as “rumours,” insisting no persecution exists and pointing to clergy calls for violence, including assassinations.This crackdown exemplifies leftist overreach, eroding Armenia’s ancient Christian heritage amid geopolitical turmoil.
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