The Investigative Committee claimed that Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian began preparations for a violent overthrow of Armenia’s government last November together members of his opposition-backed movement. In a statement, it said they planned to assassinate unnamed “civilians,” take other violent actions and paralyze the country’s security apparatus for that purpose.
The law-enforcement agency also released what it described the audio of Galstanian’s wiretapped conversations with his associates. Voices attributed to them can be heard discussing plans to set up dozens of small groups of men who would block streets, cut off electricity supply and Internet connection and cause other disruptions to help crowds topple the government.
Its statement came as the National Security Service (NSS) raided the homes of Galstanian, his two close associates as well as opposition activists across the country. Several of them are affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a major opposition party. Dashnaktsutyun and other opposition groups affected by the crackdown condemned it as politically motivated.
Galstanian was taken into custody after NSS officers searched his residence in Yerevan. The outspoken cleric scoffed at the coup allegations as he was bundled into a car and driven away.
National Security Service officers arrest Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian in Yerevan, June 25, 2025.
Clearly appealing to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, he said: “Evil, listen carefully, you have very little time left. Wait a little longer, we’ll come.”
His lawyer, Sergei Harutiunian, said the NSS officers did not find weapons or any other evidence of the alleged plot during the search dismissed by him as a publicity stunt.
Also searched was the home of Artur Sargsian, an opposition lawmaker close to Galstanian. Sargsian said afterwards that the raid highlights Pashinian’s “fears” and desperate efforts to “silence” the opposition.
In a follow-up statement, the Investigative Committee said the NSS and the Armenian police have searched more than 90 locations and found “objects and documents” corroborating the coup allegations. It released photographs of several firearms and ammunition which it said was also confiscated by them.
Members of Galstanian’s movement countered that those weapons are owned legally. They said the investigators themselves showed relevant gun licenses in some of those photographs.
The committee also reported that at a total of 16 individuals have been indicted so far. Fourteen of them are currently under arrest, it said.
The crackdown came the day after civic.am, a website controlled by Armenia’s ruling party, published what it called a copy of a “coup plan” devised by the opposition. The alleged plan, dismissed by opposition leaders as a fabrication, did not list violent actions aimed at toppling Pashinian. Nevertheless, the latter portrayed it as proof of an opposition conspiracy hatched against him. Pashinian was also quick to tout the Investigative Committee statements made the following day.
An Investigative Committee photo of weapons confiscated from opposition activists, June 25, 2025.
Curiously, the “coup plan” shown by the Investigative Committee says that Galstanian’s team will execute it in July-August 2024, rather than this year, as was claimed by civic.am. The ruling party website did not show this dateline when it publicized the alleged document on Tuesday. Opposition figures seized upon this fact, saying that it alone makes mockery of the coup allegations.
The main opposition Hayastan alliance, of which Dashnaktsutyun is a key member, issued a statement denouncing the “illegal arrests and searches” and “trumped-up accusations.” It urged Armenians to “unite and prevent” Pashinian from “silencing the hotbeds of national resistance” to his rule.
Galstanian headed the Armenian Apostolic Church diocese in the northern Tavush province until leading in May and June last year anti-government protests sparked by Pashinian’s controversial territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. After failing to scuttle the land transfer, he rallied tens of thousands of people in Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s resignation.
Virtually all Armenian opposition forces joined or endorsed the Galstanian-led movement as it gained momentum in May 2024. But some of them subsequently criticized the archbishop for lacking a clear roadmap to regime change.
