Political tensions
A coup attempt would have been thwarted in Armenia
The police have thwarted an attempted coup involving Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, according to the Prime Minister.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian, who denounced an attempt to overthrow power by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian.
AFP
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian said on Wednesday that the police had thwarted an attempted coup involving an ecclesiastics, accusations rejected by one of the relatives of this opponent, while relations between the apostolic church and power degrade.
According to the Armenian Inquiry Committee, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, who belongs to this church, is involved in this alleged attempt at the reversal of power.
Last year, this opponent had taken the lead in a protest movement accusing the Armenian Prime Minister for having given up territories to neighboring Azerbaijan.
“The agents of the police have thwarted a disaster plan on a large scale of the” oligarchic criminal clergy “to destabilize the Republic of Armenia and take power,” wrote, on Telegram, Nikol Pachinian.
Bagrat Galstanian, according to the investigation committee, “with the prior agreement of several members of the movement, acquired the means and tools necessary to carry out terrorist acts and take power”.
Since November 2024, it “has set itself the objective of changing power by means which are not allowed by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia”, continues this same source.
Searches at Bagrat Galstanian
Searches are “underway” to the homes of the archbishop and around thirty of his associates, added the investigation committee.
Images published by the media News.Am show Bagrat Galstanian Leaving his house, framed by masked agents who escort him to a car before leaving.
“Demon, listen carefully – whatever you do, you don’t have much time.” Wait, we arrive, “said Bagrat Galstanian, visibly speaking to Nikol Pachinian. Opposite, the crowd chanted: “Nikol is a traitor.”
The deputy Garnik Danielian, close partner of the archbishop, denounced, with journalists, worthy actions, according to him, of a “dictatorial regime” and rejected the accusations targeting the ecclesiastics.
Another opposition figure, Ishkhan Saghatyan, of the nationalist party Dashnaktsutyun, said that the police also led searches among members of his movement.
Bagrat Galstanian movement
Friday, members of the opposition, from Dashnaktsutyun and the Bagrat Galstanian movement, had been arrested, according to human rights groups and opposition parties, when the Prime Minister began a rare visit to Turkey, a historic enemy of Armenia.
Reacting to the failure of the alleged coup attempt, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said to hope that Armenia remains a “prosperous country and friend with Russia”, where “legality” is respected.
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