Bishop Mkrtich Proshian, the primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church diocese in the central Aragatsotn province, was arrested in October amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s attempts to depose Catholicos Garegin II. He was charged with illegally ordering his subordinates to attend opposition rallies and vote against Pashinian’s party in 2021 parliamentary elections.
Proshian, who is a nephew of Garegin, denies the accusations. The church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin also rejects them as politically motivated.
On the day of Proshian’s arrest, Armenia’s Investigative Committee also rounded up at least 12 other Aragatsotn priests. All but one of them were freed without charge hours later. Some of them accused investigators of trying to pressure them into giving incriminating testimony against the diocese head.
The criminal case is understood to be based on testimony given by two other local priests who were defrocked by Garegin and pledged allegiance to Pashinian last fall. Both men, who continue to occupy their churches with the help of law-enforcement officers, attended the opening session of the trial, sitting next to a prosecutor.
The prosecutor asked the court to extend Proshian’s arrest by three months, saying that that the bishop could pressure witness in the case if released from custody. Proshian’s lawyer, Roman Aharonian, countered that no witnesses have been called to the trial by the prosecution. Meanwhile, the presiding judge agreed to only a one-month extension of the arrest.
Three archbishops of the Armenian Church have also been arrested and indicted since Pashinian began pressuring Garegin to resign in June. They too deny different charges levelled against them.
Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian, who heads the church diocese in Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province, was sentenced in early October to two years in prison for calling for a violent overthrow of the Armenian government. Another, even more outspoken archbishop, Bagrat Galstanian, is standing trial together with his 17 supporters accused of plotting “terrorist acts” in a bid to seize power.
Garegin has refused to step down despite the crackdown. The supreme head of the church insisted earlier this month that it remains “firm and unshaken” in the face of what he called “repressions” unleashed by Pashinian’s administration.