Davit Minasyan, one of the brothers who took part in the incident in Saint Anna Church, was detained for 2 months yesterday. The schoolboy, who just turned 18 years old, asked only one thing in the court: will he be able to finish school… The decision to detain David was made by the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan, chaired by Mnatsakan Martirosyan and Matso. And nothing was taken into account: neither the boy’s health condition, the need for round-the-clock care, nor the violation of the right to education guaranteed by the Constitution and international conventions, nor the videos examined in court, which documented how Nikol Pashinyan’s bodyguard hit the boy, nor the bodyguard’s testimony that Davit did not hit Pashinyan, nor the fact that the investigators filed a motion to arrest the 12th grader court without getting acquainted with the case materials in full.

To discuss what happened in any legal dimension is, of course, nonsense. They don’t discuss the actions of the khujan in the legal field. Khuzhan is condemned and punished. But when the top leadership of the country acts as a bully, the law enforcement officers become a yoke serving the bully, a school-age child ends up behind bars.

Armenia is already crossing the line of irreversibility, turning from a Khuzhanate into a tyranny. Or has already passed and is waiting for the official publication of the one-way ticket to roll into the abyss on June 7. If the khujan remains and the yokels continue to serve.

Whether the government and the so-called law-enforcement bodies are acting with planned malice or because of the lack of any other essence of the one giving the instructions, will ever be revealed. At the moment, the problem is that this ugliness, based on the desecration of sanctuaries, serves specific political interests. To maintain power, Nikol Pashinyan crosses all red lines, written and unwritten laws, spits on sanctities.

His bodyguard hits the child like a hyena (this is clearly visible in the video), after which the law enforcement officers, turned into blunt instruments, kidnap him. Any sane person, regardless of political views, is disgusted by this. But that disgust weakens the positions of those fighting against the government. Pashinyan plays without rules and incites those fighting against him to spit on the holy places.

Fortunately, the vast majority of fighters, with all their shortcomings, have brakes, red lines, sanctities to a greater or lesser extent. But in the current political arena, in particular, in the election struggle, the government’s insolence becomes a competitive advantage, because Pashinyan, who has no sanctities, has control over the entire state and power structures, and by inciting such heinous acts, he is even more attached to the task of serving without fail for the preservation of his power. today, the law enforcement officers who behave like hyenas, if they do not realize it due to lack of brain, then with their typical animal instinct, they feel that if Pashinyan loses power, they will treat them like they treat jackals.
What the opposition should do in this case is not to lose sanctities and be disfigured by Pashinyan’s example.

The opposition can and should go beyond standard pre-election formats and pointless battles on social networks, turning the ugliness of the government into a means of turning public disgust on the street into a political result.

In many countries, from the Arab world to Western countries, huge upheavals have started and authorities have been purged after the disfigurement done to one person.

Today’s opposition can and must make the defense of Davit Minasyan the number one issue on the political agenda, subordinating any electoral goal to it. David’s protection can ensure not only his return to childhood, but also the return of Nikol Pashinyan to where he came from.

Otherwise, the disgust, revulsion and blasphemy of his ugliness will only strengthen him. The ugliness feeds on blasphemy, the ugliness wants to be reproduced in order to make everyone suffer the fate of Davit Minasyan.

Harutyun Avetisyan

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“In today’s relations between the state and the church, the state itself must be protected from the public authorities,” said Davit Harutyunyan, deputy president of the RPA, executive director of the “Luys” Foundation, during the parliamentary hearing “Regarding the current state of relations between the state and the national church” organized by the “I have honor” faction in the National Assembly.

He noted that, as a rule, the issue related to the church is discussed from the point of view of national identity and spiritual life, but the statement deliberately addresses this issue only from the point of view of the Constitution.

According to Harutyunyan, the statement discussed today is about one thing: the borders of the legal state. According to him, one of the important parts of those borders is the state-church demarcation, which includes the principle of non-interference, the guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion, the autonomy of religious communities, this is the border drawn by the Constitution.

“There cannot be favorite and unloved constitutional provisions, the Constitution is not a menu from which one chooses suitable dishes. The word itself suggests the essence: Constitution, the limit was set by the Constitution. And the border, whether it is the border of the state or the border of law, is either kept or trampled. Whoever he is, Christian or Muslim, Buddhist or pagan, agnostic or atheist, everyone has no right to violate the Constitution. The main thesis of this statement is as follows: the Constitution has demarcated the powers of the state and the church, any action beyond those limits is prohibited, regardless of who is in the state. at the helm, at the helm of the church,” said Davit Harutyunyan.

He tried to explain with facts what is really happening at present.

“Let’s start with the facts. In the last year, our law enforcement officers have shown a special zeal in following the church calendar. It is unfortunate that the Investigative Committee feverishly waits for the Sunday liturgy for only one reason, precisely during the hours of the Holy liturgy, the investigators have an urgent desire to talk with the priests in the investigative department.

And our courts have decided that if the church has excommunicated someone, that is not the end, the person can go to court and bring back his priestly gift. Imagine for a moment the ridiculous situation: the judge slams his gavel on the table and announces: “For the sake of RA, I return the grace of the Holy Spirit to you. Go perform your liturgy.”

If the state implements reforms within the church through an investigator and a judge, interferes with the liturgy, it means that we are not building a democracy, but starting a new state religion, a religion where the prime minister is the head of religion, and investigators and prosecutors are apostles.

There is only one technical detail left to be resolved in order to end this tyranny, to call the Code of Criminal Procedure the Holy Book and that’s it.

2025-2026 5 servants of the Armenian Church were arrested on trumped-up charges: three archbishops, one bishop and one priest. National philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan was deprived of his liberty for supporting the church, on January 31, 2026, 6 bishops of the Holy Etchmiadzin Mother See received the status of accused and their exit from RA was prohibited.

On February 14, a criminal case was initiated against the Catholicos of All Armenians. All of them were deprived of the opportunity to participate in the Episcopal meeting planned in Austria. On March 20, the investigator did not allow the Catholicos of All Armenians to travel to Georgia to participate in the funeral ceremony of Ilya II.

They were probably afraid that the Catholicos would ask for political asylum in Georgia and never return to Armenia. And finally this week’s case, on March 29, the day of Palm Sunday, twin brothers Davit and Mikayel Minasyan were arrested in St. Anna Church, both of them are brilliant students, decent and devout young people who go to church every week.

David is accused of trying to hit the prime minister, although I think everyone saw the video, except for the investigator and the prime minister. Mikael is also accused of allegedly helping Davit hit the Prime Minister. Their apartment was searched, they were looking for any connection with any party, they did not find it, instead they found prayer books.

As a result, a two-month detention for a schoolboy holding a prayer book in the church. This is not only a criminal persecution of the young people who dared not to show due respect to the Prime Minister’s entourage entering the shrine, this is an investigative intimidation of the entire society. What I said are facts, not comments,” explained Davit Harutyunyan.

According to him, it may seem strange at first glance, but in today’s state-church relations, the state itself must be protected from public authorities. “That defense starts here, from this hall,” said Harutyunyan.

Ma:n:ramas on 168TV video.

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RPA vice-chairman Armen Ashotyan held an action near the European Union representation today in defense of 18-year-old Davit Minasyan, who was detained yesterday.

“Representatives of the European Union, if you have the courage to listen.

My fellow citizens. Defenders of freedom. European citizens who pay taxes to maintain this embassy, ​​I stand here today not with diplomatic courtesy, but with a burning heart.

I stand in front of this building, in front of this supposed symbol of Europe, of justice, of human dignity, and I am ashamed, not of my country, but of those who claim to be its moral “coaches” but actually bow their heads.

Behind me is a building whose windows remain closed, whose diplomats are silent, while a student sits in a prison cell for the “crime” of speaking his mind in church.

Davit Minasyan is 18 years old. He is a student. His only “crime” was being in St. Anne’s Church on Palm Sunday, surrounded by the violence of the security forces. They hit him in the face. They threw him to the ground. And who is behind the bars, not the men who hit him, but David? For a gesture. For one word.

Today he is under pre-trial detention as a common criminal. Two months. A frustrated emotion in the presence of a “prime minister” who, apparently, considers himself above the law and above God.

And where is Europe? Where are you?

You who read endless lectures about democracy. You who demand transparency, preach the rule of law, and sanctimoniously make statements about human rights in every corner of the world.

You are standing here in Yerevan, preparing for the big summit with this government in May. You will smile. You will shake hands. You will sign “partnership” papers. Drink Armenian cognac.

But I ask you. what kind of partnership is built on the bones of a child’s freedom?

Your silence is not neutrality. Your silence is complicity.

You won’t say a word about Davit Minasyan because you don’t want to embarrass the person who smiles in front of your cameras.

You will not remember about democratic standards because you need a “stable partner” for your geopolitics.

You will not criticize the persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church, because you do not want to “interfere in internal affairs”.

But let me tell you what goes on inside those inner workings. the rule of law is dying. Courts are a rubber stamp. The prime minister’s security forces beat teenagers in churches and the teens go to jail. Meanwhile, those loyal to the regime can spit on citizens with impunity.

This is not a democracy. This is a dictatorship with a European facade.

And you, you, the European Union, help paint that facade.

You sit in your embassies. You write your reports. You use the words “concern”, “reforms”, “encouraging steps”, “Hybrid war”. But where is your outrage? Where is your moral clarity?

If you can’t protect an 18-year-old student in church, what are you protecting?

If you remain silent when the Armenian people are deprived of their fundamental freedoms, what do your agreements mean?

If you accept a government that imprisons its critics, pretending to build a “European future”, then you are not building Europe, you are burying its values ​​in Armenian soil.

Let me be clear. I am a patriot. I want a European modus vivendi and modus operandi for Armenia.

I want our people to enjoy the freedoms that Europeans take for granted. But I am here and I will not allow you to use the dream of Europe as a shield for dictatorship.

You cannot lecture us about democracy while you shake hands with a regime that imprisons children.

You cannot demand judicial reforms, while you ignore the judge who signed Davit Minasyan’s arrest decision without evidence.

You cannot call yourselves defenders of human rights, while you remain silent, because the Armenian Apostolic Church, the soul of our nation, is being persecuted.

Shame on you.

Shame on your silence. Shame on your hypocrisy. Shame on the diplomats who look out their windows, who see me here, who know the truth and do nothing.

Davit Minasyan should be released. Today. Not tomorrow. Not after the summit. Now.

And until you find your voice, until you stop being promoters of authoritarianism, you don’t deserve to call this place the “Delegation of the European Union”. You do not deserve the trust of the Armenian people and European citizens.

We will not be silent. We will not bow down. We will continue to fight for our freedoms, with or without you.

But history will remember who stood by the oppressed and who looked away.

Release Davit Minasyan. Release all political prisoners.

And officials of the European Union. either live up to your values ​​or stop pretending you have them.

I am leaving here the school bag, which could have belonged to Davit Minasyan, as a blatant reminder of your hypocrisy,” said Armen Ashotyan during the campaign.

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Mikael Minasyan writes: “Ten years ago today, the April war began, the last victory of the Republic of Armenia on the battlefield. The last successful consolidation of victory on the diplomatic front.

In 2016, an attempt was made to impose a scenario on Armenia, which was rejected first by the efforts of the Armenian army and then by the work of the state.

Armenia won outside the borders, but started to lose inside the country due to the spread of the aggressive “nemesis”, “handover the land to the land” thesis and defeatist propaganda.

But that is another story.

The April War was the last victory that had heroes who had names, whose heroism had a place, a published number and a valor of valor.

This was the last time when everyone and everything were in their place: the Diaspora and its structures, the state and its institutions, decision-makers and allies.

Kudos to the heroes who knew what they were fighting and dying for.”

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