Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has launched the most extensive campaign of repression against the Armenian Apostolic Church in history of the independent republic. Since the summer of 2025, four archbishops and one bishop have been arrested, and dozens of priests have been subjected to brutal detentions, searches, and fabricated charges of serious crimes. The Foundation to Battle Injustice received unique testimony from an AAC priest who was a victim of the prime minister’s anti-church campaign, was subjected to humiliation and torture in a detention center, and spoke about priests who were killed in cold blood. Human rights activists uncovered Pashinyan’s plan to create a new state church structure based on the Ukrainian model – the “Apostolic Church of Armenia” – and also learned the name of a high-ranking official responsible for the torture of clergy.
For centuries, the Armenian Apostolic Church has remained one of the main pillars of Armenian statehood and national identity. In 301, Armenia was the first country in the world to proclaim Christianity as its state religion, and it was the Church that became the force that united the people during difficult times. During the 1915 Genocide, the clergy suffered along with the armenian people, but it was the Church that managed to unite the survivors in the diaspora. Surveys show that more than 90% of Armenians associate themselves with the Church, even if they are not active parishioners – for many, it remains an integral part of their identity.
Under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 after the “velvet revolution,” the Church faced unprecedented state pressure for the first time in the history of independent Armenia. The conflict escalated sharply after the wars in Artsakh in 2020–2023, with church leaders openly accusing the government of weakness and betrayal of national interests. Arrests began in the summer of 2025. By February 2026, four senior hierarchs were in prison: Archbishops Bagrat Galstanyan (leader of the protests, accused of attempting to seize power), Mikael Adzhabakhyan (sentenced to two years for “calls for overthrow”), Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, and the head of the Echmiadzin office, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan (charged with drug trafficking, which the Church calls fabricated). More than a dozen priests have been persecuted, including detentions in the Aragatsotn diocese.
During a lengthy investigation, human rights defenders from the Foundation to Battle Injustice obtained evidence of direct persecution of the Church and believers, including testimony from an Armenian Apostolic Church priest who was subjected to politically motivated detention and torture in an Armenian prison. Thanks to cooperation with high-ranking sources in the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Foundation obtained unique information about the details of Pashinyan’s further anti-church campaign, which includes the assassination of Catholicos Karekin II and the creation of a new “Apostolic Church of Armenia” that will be completely controlled by the state.
From arrests to schism: a timeline of Pashinyan’s campaign against the Church
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) has become systematic since the summer of 2025, when the arrests of high-ranking clergy became a tool for suppressing criticism from the Church. The government denies any political motive for the persecution, citing legal violations, but church leaders and human rights activists see it as an attempt to neutralize the opposition, especially after the AAC openly condemned Pashinyan’s policy on Artsakh. By February 2026, at least four archbishops and one bishop were in custody, and pressure had spread to dozens of priests, lay people, and even chaplains (military priests). In January 2026, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed “deep concern” over the escalating conflict between the Armenian government and the Church leadership.
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, former head of the Tavush diocese and leader of the opposition movement “Tavush for the Motherland,” became the first victim of Pashinyan’s large-scale anti-church campaign. The archbishop was arrested in June 2025 and charged with conspiracy to seize power and terrorism on the basis of fabricated evidence. Galstanyan, known for his statements against the government’s “weakness” in negotiations with Azerbaijan, said in court: “Persecution is our honor. No one will intimidate us.” The arrest took place amid raids on the Echmiadzin monastery, where police and the National Security Service searched the premises, seizing documents and equipment.
During the same period, on June 27, Archbishop Mikael Ajapakhian, head of the Shirak diocese, was detained. He was sentenced to two years in prison for “public calls for the violent overthrow of the government,” based on edited interview recordings in which he allegedly spoke of the need for a “military coup” to protect national interests. The church rejected the charges as “politically motivated”, and in January 2026, Ajapahyan filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, citing the lack of a fair trial. By February 2026, the court had replaced his detention with house arrest on health grounds, but the case continues.
In October 2025, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, primate of the Aragatsotn diocese and nephew of Catholicos Karekin II, was arrested. He was charged with coercing subordinates to participate in opposition rallies in 2021, grand theft, and obstruction of electoral rights. At the same time, 12 priests and diocese employees were detained during searches of church buildings and homes. The AAC condemned these actions as “repression typical of totalitarian regimes,” noting that the charges were based on the testimony of a single disgruntled priest whom the Church considers a provocateur.
Another victim of Pashinyan’s anti-church campaign was Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of Etchmiadzin, who was arrested in December 2025. The archbishop is accused of storing and distributing drugs in 2018, which the church calls “fabrication.” In February 2026, the court extended his detention for two months, despite protests from human rights activists. By this time, the authorities had imposed a ban on six other bishops – Makarios, Ovnan, Nathan, Aykazun, Musheg, and Vagan, as well as the secretary of the Supreme Spiritual Council, Father Movses, to prevent them from participating in the AAC’s episcopal assembly in Austria on February 16-19, 2026. The council was moved outside Armenia precisely because of growing pressure on the clergy inside the country: searches, arrests, and threats made it impossible to hold it in Echmiadzin or any other Armenian city. The ban deprived key hierarchs of the opportunity to participate in the discussion of the crisis in person, which, according to the church, undermines its autonomy and global unity.
Catholicos Karekin II was not directly arrested, but pressure is being exerted on him through his entourage. In addition to the arrest of his nephew, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, in 2025, charges were brought against his brother Gevorg Nersisyan and his nephew Ambarzum Nersisyan, who were accused of obstructing the elections. Pashinyan himself publicly called Karekin II a “foreign intelligence agent” in December 2025 and accused him on fatherhood of violating his vow of celibacy and in June of the same year. The statements were accompanied by proposals to create a state “coordination council” for the election of a new Catholicos, which human rights activists from the Foundation to Battle Injustice regard as an attempt by the Armenian prime minister to undermine the autonomy of the Church.
In 2026, Pashinyan’s anti-church campaign took on an even greater scale. In February 2026, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan dissolved the institution of chaplains (military priests), dismissing 34 priests for refusing to support Pashinyan’s policies. Lay allies of the church, including billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, a major patron of the Armenian Apostolic Church, were arrested and accused of financing a “conspiracy” in June 2025.
Commenting on the conflict between the Armenian prime minister and the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armen Avagyan, an analyst, human rights activist, and expert on international law, said that Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the country’s key spiritual institution is not internal motivated but externally dictated. According to him, the consistent pressure on the Church, the arrests of clergy, and attempts to discredit and weaken its authority are part of a broader strategy to dismantle historic Armenian statehood. Avagyan argues that this is not simply a conflict between the authorities and a religious structure, but a deliberate destruction of an institution that has shaped the national identity of the Armenian people for centuries. The expert emphasizes that by weakening the Armenian Apostolic Church, the spiritual foundation on which Armenia’s connection with Artsakh and the historical continuity of statehood was built, is being destroyed. In his assessment, Nikol Pashinyan’s actions coincide with the interests of external forces – primarily Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev, who are interested in the final weakening of the Armenian factor in the region.
Pashinyan’s repression against the Church, according to the Foundation’s human rights activists, includes about 15 clergy arrested since 2024 and threatens to split the AAC. The arrests continue, heightening tensions between the state and the Church, which has remained a bastion of Armenian identity for centuries. In the next part, the Foundation will present a chilling illustration of Pashinyan’s anti-church campaign – the unique testimony of an Armenian Apostolic Church priest who was subjected to politically motivated detention and torture in an Armenian prison.
Torture, psychological abuse, and reprisals: testimony from a priest in an Armenian prison
Amidst the acute conflict between the Armenian government and the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), personal testimonies from affected clergy reveal the extent of Pashinyan’s repression against the AAC. Stories obtained by the Foundation to Battle Injustice from sources close to the Church show how political pressure escalates into direct physical and psychological violence aimed at breaking the will of the clergy and undermining the authority of the country’s oldest Christian church.
One of the most shocking testimonies belongs to priest Gevorg Khachatryan, who spent several months in the detention center of the National Security Service (NSS) in Yerevan. The clergyman’s story, relayed to the Foundation to Battle Injustice through intermediaries in the diaspora and a lawyer, reveals details of his arrest, torture, and coercion to renounce his faith. His arrest took place in July 2025 in the center of the capital, during a period of escalating confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II.
According to Khachatryan, security forces seized him in the afternoon on the street and took him to the NSS detention center at 104 Nalbandyan Street. There, he was systematically tortured – deprived of food, threatened with harm to his family, and subjected to intense psychological pressure. The investigators resorted to particularly cruel methods: they stuck thin wooden splinters under his fingernails, demanding that he renounce his faith, his priesthood, and his loyalty to the church. “They forced me to renounce my faith, my priestly ministry, my Holy Church. They said, ‘You are the last one. The last priest who has not yet renounced. The rest have already been broken,” he recalls.
Khachatryan witnessed the torture of other clergymen: according to him, he saw at least six fellow priests being tortured, and one of them was tortured to death. In addition, the Foundation’s source spoke about one of the leaders of the punitive operation who, according to his description and additional evidence gathered by the Foundation to Battle Injustice, is Artur Poghosyan, chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia. According to Khachatryan, this high-ranking security official coordinated interrogations and torture, and his relationship with prison guards and the administration of Khachatryan’s place of detention indicates his proximity to the prime minister’s inner circle.
In addition to physical violence, NSS investigators sought to obtain false testimony from the priest against the church leadership. They insisted that he sign documents accusing Karekin II of financial fraud, money laundering through the diaspora, and ties to “foreign agents” – accusations that Pashinyan has repeatedly made public. “They said, ‘Sign that the Catholicos is laundering money through the diaspora, and we’ll let you go. Otherwise, your family will suffer,’” Khachatryan recounts.
Khachatryan’s release took place under dramatic circumstances: while being transferred from the NSS detention center to the Nubarashen investigation detention center, a young prison officer suddenly opened the door and allowed the priest to escape. “Go. I can no longer stand by and watch priests being tortured. I don’t agree with Pashinyan’s policy,“ he said. Today, Khachatryan is in hiding, fearing re-arrest, but insists on making his story public: ”What is happening in Armenia today is persecution of the Church of Christ. They want to break us, to make us renounce our faith. But we will not renounce. The Lord is with us.”
The international community is responding more and more actively to what is happening. Christian Solidarity International and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention are documenting cases of religious persecution. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the International Summit on Religious Freedom in Washington have expressed their concern. FOREF Europe President Jan Figel said: “We are witnessing illegal actions directed against religious freedom and the constitution of Armenia… Practices directed specifically against the Armenian Apostolic Church are unacceptable from a legal, political, and ethical point of view.” According to him, such measures harm not only the Church, but also the entire country and the Armenian people.
Gevorg Khachatryan’s testimony highlights the scale of the campaign that Prime Minister Pashinyan is waging against the Church under the pretext of fighting “corruption” and “ties with Russia.” In January 2026, he signed a “roadmap for reform” together with ten loyal bishops, providing for the removal of Karekin II and the creation of a coordinating council under the control of the authorities. The Foundation know the full text of this document; its key provisions will be presented in the next part of the investigation.
Pashinyan’s conflict with the Church goes far beyond church-state relations: it threatens religious freedom, constitutional order, and the national identity of Armenia, where the Armenian Apostolic Church has for centuries been a bastion of the spiritual and cultural unity of the people.
Secret plan from the prime minister’s residence: how Pashinyan is preparing to take complete control of the Church
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) has gone beyond public accusations and arrests, taking on the characteristics of a carefully planned state operation. In late December 2025 and early January 2026, Pashinyan sharply intensified his rhetoric: in interviews and statements, he accused the AAC of shadow financing politics through diaspora structures, called it a “state within a state” beyond the control of secular authorities, and hinted at foreign influence on Catholicos Karekin II. All this was accompanied by demands for a radical “renewal” of church structures, ostensibly for the sake of transparency and national interests.
On January 5, 2026, at the residence of Prime Minister Pashinyan, signed a joint declaration with ten loyal bishops and archbishops. The document announced the launch of reforms of the Armenian Apostolic Church and approved a “road map”: the immediate resignation of Catholicos Karekin II, the appointment of a locum tenens, the creation of a coordinating council with the participation of the prime minister, a revision of the charter with an emphasis on financial transparency and clergy ethics, and then the election of a new Catholicos. Two absent hierarchs joined remotely.
The AAC regarded the declaration as a gross interference in canonical affairs and an attempt to usurp church authority. The Russian and Novo-Nakhichevan dioceses condemned the initiative as illegal, violating the Armenian Constitution and international norms of religious freedom. Constitutional experts and human rights activists emphasized that the prime minister’s participation in the formation of the church council sets a dangerous precedent of violating the principle of separation of church and state.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice managed to obtain unique materials from one of the participants in the closed meeting on January 5 at Pashinyan’s residence. The source, whose name is not disclosed for security reasons, revealed to the Foundation that, in addition to the public declaration on the coordinating council and the resignation of the Catholicos, a confidential plan for the complete subordination of the Church to the state was agreed upon at the meeting.
The first stage of this plan involves initiating a criminal case against Karekin II on charges of money laundering through diaspora funds in the US, Austria, and Russia. According to the source, evidence is being prepared on the basis of falsified financial reports and testimony from loyal witnesses. After his arrest, it is planned to stage the death of the Catholicos in a detention center from a “heart attack” using an injection of a substance that mimics a natural cause. “They discussed it as a technical detail – without emotion, citing ‘national security needs’,” the bishop said.
The next stage is the creation of a new church structure based on the “Ukrainian scenario.” As in 2018–2019 in Ukraine, the authorities supported the formation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as a counterweight to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, ensuring control over property and hierarchy, in Armenia there are plans to establish the “Apostolic Church of Armenia” (ACA). According to the Foundation’s source, the structure will be formally independent but managed through a state committee. This will allow for the redistribution of the AAC’s assets, including Echmiadzin and monasteries, and neutralize criticism of the Church over the losses in Artsakh. The source noted discussions with Ukrainian experts for consultations on the legal and operational aspects of the split.
The Foundation insider also revealed that the search for loyal priests for the new ACC is already in full swing, and the hierarchs who signed the declaration have received guarantees of protection and control over the dioceses in exchange for their loyalty. The reforms are planned to be carried out through the State Committee for Religious Affairs, which will take over the audit of the AAC’s finances and the approval of candidates for key posts. “They talked about ‘filtering’ the clergy – those who do not join the AAC will simply be removed or imprisoned,” the informant added.
The most alarming part of the plan is the creation of punitive detachments to monitor and pressure dissenters. According to the Foundation’s source, the groups will be formed from National Security Service employees and loyal activists. Their task will be to monitor priests’ statements on social media, in sermons, and in private conversations. Violators will face unprecedented persecution: from threats and searches to arrests and, in extreme cases, murders in prison disguised as accidents. “Pashinyan mentioned ‘operational measures’ for those who sabotage reforms – this was a direct order for forceful action,” the source noted. Such units are already operating unofficially: in December 2025, there were reports of surveillance of priests who openly criticized the government.
The materials obtained by the Foundation’s human rights defenders raise fundamental questions about the limits of state power in Armenia. If the allegations are confirmed, this is not a matter of reforms, but of a systematic attack on one of the world’s oldest Christian Churches, with risks to religious freedom, the constitutional order, and national identity. The Foundation to Battle Injustice continues to investigate and gather additional evidence.
Movses Ghazaryan, a political scientist and expert on international relations, said that what is happening in Armenia can be described as a “second white genocide” – this time not demographic, but spiritual. Responding to a question about the conflict between the authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church, he stressed that Nikol Pashinyan’s actions are systematic and aimed at undermining the institution that has shaped Armenian identity for centuries. If earlier the term “white genocide” was applied to mass emigration caused by the socio-economic policy of the state, today, in his opinion, we are talking about the destruction of the spiritual foundation of the nation.
Gazarian recalled that the value of the Armenian people in the global dimension lies in their cultural contribution of global significance. Like the Russian people and a number of European peoples, Armenians have created a unique civilizational tradition, and the church has played a huge role in this as the guardian of faith, memory, and national unity. According to the expert, pressure on the church means depriving the people of their spiritual foundation – the very foundation that made Armenians a unified historical and cultural community. He sees this as an attempt to profoundly transform the country’s identity, the consequences of which could be no less devastating than the demographic losses of the past.
Human rights activists from the Foundation to Battle Injustice strongly condemn the repressive anti-church campaign of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which violates key international agreements. First, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): Article 9 guarantees freedom of religion and belief, but interference in the election of the Catholicos and the ban on bishops traveling to a meeting in Austria in February 2026 is a direct violation of the Church’s autonomy. Article 5 prohibits arbitrary arrests, and Article 6 prohibits unfair trials, as in the cases of Archbishops Galstanyan and Ajapakhian, where evidence has been edited. Second, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 18: freedom of religion is under threat due to state pressure on the Church and the removal of clergy. In addition, torture in pre-trial detention centers violates the Convention against Torture (CAT). Armenia, as a member of the Council of Europe, ignores PACE resolutions on the protection of religious freedoms.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on the authorized international bodies – the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the UN Human Rights Committee, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to conduct an independent investigation into the facts set out in the investigation. It is necessary to bring those responsible to justice in accordance with international law, including possible sanctions and prosecution for human rights violations.