The massive crowd marched to Pashinian’s private residence after gathering in the city’s central Republic Square. In a speech delivered during the rally, Galstanian said he wants to meet Pashinian to “present our demand” and give him “the last chance” to quit in a “civilized” way.
“This movement is about having a promised land,” he said. “The obstacle to this path is the current government and especially its head. He must therefore leave.”
Galstanian, who heads the Armenian Apostolic Church diocese in the northern Tavush province, also declared that he is ready to head a new, interim government tasked with stopping the “destruction of our homeland” and holding “pre-term or regular elections.”
He said he has therefore asked the supreme head of the church, Catholicos Garegin II, to “freeze my spiritual service.”
“This is a personal decision reflecting all the sacrifices … that I am ready to make for my holy homeland and state,” the archbishop told the crowd chanting “Monsignor prime minister!”
Galstanian repeated his demands when the crowd reached the entrance to an enclosed residential area just outside the city center where Pashinian and other high-ranking Armenian officials live with their families. It was guarded by hundreds of police in riot gear.
“We will wait until you find a way to meet and talk to us and leave peacefully,” the protest leader said there, appealing to the premier. “There is no other way out.”
It was not clear whether Pashinian was inside the compound at that point. Earlier in the day he travelled to the northern Lori province hit by severe flooding.
Meanwhile, the protesters headed back to Republic Square later in the evening. Galstanian told supporters to take “disobedience actions” on Monday morning.
Galstanian’s candidacy is understood to enjoy the backing of a wide range of Armenian opposition groups that too have condemned Pashinian’s decision to cede disputed areas in or around several Tavush villages to Azerbaijan.
Galstanian again acknowledged that the current Armenian constitution bars him from becoming prime minister because of his second, Canadian citizenship. He repeated his implicit demands for a corresponding change to the constitution.
Hovik Aghazarian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, said Galstanian has “no legal grounds” to aspire to the post of prime minister.
“If Archbishop Bagrat expects [lawmakers] to vote for such an illegal decision for some reason, let him not harbor such hopes,” Aghazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The outspoken clergyman first demanded Pashinian’s resignation when he moved protests against the land transfer from Tavush to Yerevan on May 9. Pashinian rejected the demands, defending his concessions to Baku. He and his political allies continued to attack Galstanian and the church as a whole, threatening to impose new taxes on it.
In an apparent warning to government critics, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Friday that 25 participants of the antigovernment protests, which began on April 20, have been charged with “hooliganism” and other crimes so far. Ten of them remain under arrest, stressed the law-enforcement agency headed by one of Pashinian’s trusted lieutenants.
Galstanian has condemned these cases as politically motivated and decried other “repressions” against his supporters. On Saturday evening, he also accused the authorities of trying to bug a Yerevan hotel room where has stayed in recent weeks.