Armenian security services on Wednesday arrested a group of 14 people—including a prominent archbishop—and charged them with treason for attempting a coup.
In a statement, Armenia's Investigative Committee said that it had filed criminal charges against Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and 13 others, whom they said had "acquired the means and tools necessary to commit a terrorist attack and seize power", as per a Reuters report.
On Telegram, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the attempted coup a "large and sinister plan by the 'criminal-oligarchic clergy'" to take over power in Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus.
His lawyer, Sergei Arutyunyan, described the charges as “fiction”, and that his client was a victim of a government seeking to "create a smokescreen and simulate that they've caught a terrorist group”.
Galstanyan is a prominent member of the powerful Armenian Apostolic Church, who leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement against Pashinyan.
Mobilising popular anger over defeats and the concession of Nagorno-Karabakh (a mountainous region that once belonged to Armenia) the religious leader led days of street protests last summer to force Pashinyan to step down, increasingly trading barbs in recent weeks, ahead of the nation's elections scheduled for next year.
Other senior clerics have also repeatedly called for Pashinyan to step down over Armenia's military losses to Azerbaijan.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to the news, stating that Russia considered the coup attempt “an internal matter for Armenia”, but hoped that the North Asian nation would maintain friendly relations with Moscow.
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“We’re interested in ensuring the rule of law and peace are preserved in Armenia, and that Armenia is a prosperous and stable country that’s friendly to Russia,” he added.
Although Armenia is a treaty ally of Russia and traditionally a close partner, Russo-Armenian relations have deteriorated in recent years as the South Caucasus nation grows closer to the West.
