A senior cleric of the Armenian Apostolic Church has been sentenced to prison following accusations of being involved in a coup against the government. The courts found Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan guilty of calling for the overthrow of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government.
This has deepened a growing confrontation in Armenia between the Church and the authorities, who have been accused of waging an anti-Church campaign against one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.
Archbishop Ajapahyan, 62, was arrested in June and accused of being involved in an alleged coup plot. Prosecutors said he had urged the removal of the government in a series of statements made over the past year, describing his words as incitement to regime change. The Church, however, said the archbishop was merely voicing criticism of state policy and exercising his right to free expression.
