Dashnaktsutyun leaders said the arrests are part of the Armenian authorities’ ongoing crackdown on the opposition, the Armenian Apostolic Church and other critics resisting their plans to make more concessions to Azerbaijan.
All suspects are young activists of Dashnaktsutyun. Only one of them, Andranik Chamichian, was formally charged with “preparation of terrorism” in the following hours. Armenia’s Investigative Committee gave no details of a terrorist attack allegedly plotted by them.
The law-enforcement agency released only photographs of objects which it said were confiscated from the suspects. Those included a hand grenade, two electronic detonators and walkie-talkies.
Chamichian’s lawyer, Ruben Melikian, insisted that his client used the detonators and other electronic items seized by investigators for the game of “strikeball,” a sport involving simulated combat. They cannot be used for committing terrorist acts, he said.
The Investigative Committee dismissed these assurances as “disinformation,” saying that all confiscated items constitute military ammunition. The committee did not allow Melikian and lawyers for the other arrested men to visit them in custody. It denied violating Armenian laws guaranteeing suspects’ access to their legal counsels.
Another suspect in the case is the son of Gegham Manukian, a veteran Dashnaktsutyun figure and parliamentarian. Law-enforcement officers searched their Yerevan apartment before arresting Taron Manukian. They also forcibly confiscated the lawmaker’s mobile phone.
Armenia - Opposition lawmaker Gegham Manukian speaks during a parliamentary hearing in Yerevan, October 17, 2024.
“The continuing repressions are actually the result of these authorities’ fears,” Gegham Manukian told reporters after the raid.
“Fearing themselves, terrorizing themselves, terrorizing the people, they are trying to create false images,” said another Dashnaktsutyun leader, Artsvik Minasian. He accused the authorities of “violating basic human rights guaranteed by international law and our constitution and laws.”
Several other Dashnaktsutyun members were already arrested on June 25 along with Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian on charges of plotting to topple the government through “terrorist acts.” Artur Sargsian, another Dashnaktsutyun parliamentarian, was arrested and charged as part of the same criminal case on Tuesday. He too has strongly denied the accusations that seem to be based in large measure on wiretaps of Galstanian’s discussions with his associates.
Galstanian and his lawyers claim that the investigators doctored the audio and took it out of context in order to fabricate the charges. In a statement released from prison on Thursday, the outspoken archbishop demanded that they publicize the full transcript of his conversations secretly recorded by them.
The arrests came amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s more than monthlong efforts to depose Catholicos Garegin II and other senior clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church accused by him of breaking their vows of celibacy. Pashinian’s critics say the purpose of the campaign is to please Azerbaijan and Turkey and/or neutralize a major source of opposition to his unilateral concessions to Armenia’s arch-foes.