RFE/RL – Pashinian’s Visit To Yerevan Church Followed By Arrests

Surrounded by his bodyguards and aides, Pashinian unexpectedly arrived at the packed St. Anne’s Church during a Palm Sunday Mass held there. He began making his way out of it shortly afterwards, with the bodyguards clearing the way for his passage. They upset a young worshipper who told them not to push him and said he wants to keep “standing in the middle” of the church.

“Don’t look at me like that,” the man, subsequently identified as Davit Minasian, then told Pashinian before attempting to slap him on the shoulder.

Videos of the incident showed a Pashinian bodyguard knocking down one of the brothers moments later. Meanwhile, the premier signaled to his entourage to not react to the man and to carry on. They left the church amid angry cries from other believers.

Minasian was arrested right after the liturgy along with his twin brother Mikael and another citizen. Footage posted online showed several police officers dragging the 18-year-old high school student from the church courtyard in downtown Yerevan.

All three men remained in police custody but were not formally charged with any crime as of Monday evening. Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, said it launched a criminal investigation into hooliganism committed against a state official performing their duties or engaging in political activities.

Vartuhi Elbakian, a lawyer representing the brothers, insisted that they did not commit any crimes when she spoke to reporters outside the Interior Ministry building in Yerevan picketed by their classmates and the latter’s parents demanding their release.

“The boys to go to Mass every Sunday,” she said. “They are very pious.”

Elbakian also insisted that the Minasians “have no connection” to the third detainee, opposition activist Gevorg Gevorgian. The latter stood next to them during the incident.

Pashinian’s loyalists blamed it on Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church whom Pashinian has been controversially trying to depose. The chief of the prime minister’s staff, Arayik Harutiunian, accused Garegin of turning the church into a political “sect.” Opposition figures countered that the incident was the result of what they see as Pashinian’s provocative behavior.

Pashinian has spent the last few weekends touring various parts of Armenia and talking to people in the streets on what look like campaign trips connected with the June 7 parliamentary elections. Some of those citizens caused him to lose his temper by openly denouncing his policies or complaining about his government’s track record.

In the most scandalous of those incidents caught on camera, Pashinian raged at a female refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh who blamed him for Azerbaijan’s recapture of the region that forced its ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia. The premier branded the Karabakh Armenian as “fugitives” and said they have no moral right to denounce him, sparking a storm of criticism from not only his detractors but even some sympathizers. He later apologized for his outburst.

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