Archbishop Arshak arrested for two months
The examination of the petition for the arrest of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, began on December 5 at the Avan residence of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction. It was announced shortly thereafter that he was arrested for 2 months. The decision was made by Judge Masis Melkonyan of the First Instance Criminal Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan.
The latter has previously issued arrest warrants in a number of other high-profile cases. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, Stepanakert Mayor David Sargsyan, “Antifake” founder Narek Samsonyan, Levon Kocharyan, Lieutenant General Tiran Khachatryan, lawyer Aleksandr Kochubaev, and others have “passed under his hammer.”
Archbishop Arshak was detained by the NSS (National Security Service) on December 4 inside the building of the Investigative Committee. According to the Investigative body, a public criminal prosecution was initiated against him on charges of illegal drug trafficking by a group of individuals by prior agreement in a public place (Article 393 of the Criminal Code).
Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan is accused of planting drugs in the bag of one of the participants of the “New Armenia, New Patriarch” protest in 2018, with the aim of discrediting him. According to his lawyer, Arsen Babayan, there is no direct testimony in the case; isolated individuals merely expressed suspicion that the drug found in the bag might have been placed by him.
“The case has been under investigation since 2018. The last session was held in July 2025. For seven years, the investigation has failed to determine how the drug ended up in the backpack at all,” the lawyer said, calling the accusation “absurd” and the process a “political decision.”
It should be noted that following the church-government confrontation, four clergymen are already behind bars: Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the “Tavush for the Homeland” movement (referred to here as “Sacred Struggle”), Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, Primate of the Diocese of Shirak, Archbishop Mkrtich, Primate of the Diocese of Aragatsotn, and Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See.