OppositionArrest 1 — Tycoon Samvel Karapetyan with then Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, in 2017

Armenia & Karabakh Arrests Human Rights Politics

Armenian Oppositionists Rounded Up During Pashinyan’s Trip to Turkey

June 24, 2025

by

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

150

By Artak Khulian

YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Police in Armenia reportedly detained dozens of opposition activists on Friday, June 20, in a crackdown linked by opposition leaders to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Turkey.

The activists are understood to be mostly affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party and an opposition movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. Their exact number was not clear.

Dashnaktsutyun leader Ishkhan Sagahtelyan said “about a dozen” members of his party from various parts of the country were in police custody as of 8 pm local time. For his part, Galstanyan reported more than two dozen arrests made among his loyalists.

The Armenian Interior Ministry essentially confirmed the detentions, saying that the police received “operational information about the preparation of actions aimed at disrupting public order.” It did not elaborate.

“The police are carrying out enhanced service, within the framework of which preventive and explanatory work is being undertaken,” said a ministry spokesperson. “We call for the maintenance of public order. Any illegal manifestation will be met with a tough response.”

“If the police, prosecutors and the National Security Service care about our country’s constitutional order and public order then they must go after Nikol Pashinyan because he is the main threat to that,” Saghatelyan scoffed.

ADVERTISMENT

The extraordinary crackdown came as Pashinyan was about to hold talks in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In addition, opposition leaders condemned the arrest on June 19 of billionaire businessman Samvel Karapetyan that followed his strong criticism of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Pashinyan reacted furiously to the criticism voiced on Tuesday, June 17, pledging to “deactivate” Karapetyan and the top clergy in a series of social media posts.

“Now I will interfere with you in my own way, you scoundrel,” he wrote hours before Karapetyan was arrested and charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the Armenian government.

A court in Yerevan sanctioned the pre-trial arrest late on Wednesday, June 18, despite Karapetyan’s strong denials of the accusation. His lawyers appealed against the measure.

Critics say Pashinyan broke the law by publicly promising and ordering the crackdown. Anna Grigoryan, a lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, denounced what she called “Facebook justice” during a session of the Armenian parliament attended by Pashinyan.

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Topics: Arrests, Human Rights, Politics

People: Ishkhan Saghatelyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Samvel Karapetyan

MORE FROM Armenia & Karabakh

attacks borders shooting

Armenia Accuses Azerbaijan of Firing at Residential House

“Samvel Karapetyan’s arrest is a manifestation of Nikol Pashinyan’s fears,” Grigoryan said in a speech interrupted by angry shouts by some pro-government lawmakers.

“Why is Samvel Karapetyan now under arrest under this government and why is Ruben Vardanyan under arrest under the Aliyev regime [in Azerbaijan?] … Because you [and Aliyev] both hate the Armenian people and Armenian statehood,” she charged.

Robert Kocharyan, a former Armenian president and Hayastan’s top leader, also condemned Karapetyan’s “shameful” arrest, saying that the Armenian-born tycoon is being prosecuted for speaking out against Pashinyan’s efforts to depose Catholicos Garegin II and other senior clerics.

“The only way out of this shameful situation is a change of government,” Kocharyan said in a statement. “Otherwise we will quickly slide towards total dictatorship, with unpredictable consequences for our statehood.”

The church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin has also denounced the “illegal actions” against Karapetyan. Several bishops were among hundreds of people who rallied outside the court on Wednesday in support of him. Hayk Konjoryan, the parliamentary leader of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party, accused the church of “pressuring and attacking the judiciary.”

The accusation leveled against Karapetyan stems from his comments made in Echmiadzin on June 17, when he accused Pashinyan of “attacking” not only the ancient church but also the Armenian people.

“Since I have always been on the side of the Armenian Church and the Armenian people, I will have direct participation,” he told News.am. “If politicians fail, then we will also participate in all of this in our own way.”

Armenian law-enforcement authorities say the remarks amounted to a call for violent regime change, a claim shrugged off by Karapetyan’s lawyers.

Karapetyan, 59, was born and raised in Armenia and moved to Russia in the early 1990s. The bulk of his business assets estimated by Forbes magazine at $4 billion are located in Russia.

Previous Armenia Rejects Pro-Azeri Statement by Muslim States

Next Armenia Accuses Azerbaijan of Firing at Residential House

Discover more cities:

Top 5 Articles