Canadian cleric arrested in Armenia in connection to alleged coup attempt

An eminent Canadian religious of the Armenian Apostolic Church is part of a dozen Armenia security services as part of an alleged coup attempt this week.

Archbishop Bagrat Gallstanyan, who heads the diocese of Tavush in northeast Armenia, drew national attention last year in the country of the South Caucasus when he began to carry out a protest movement asking for the resignation of his Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and even saying that he would be open to replace him as a leader of Armenia.

This movement gained steam following land concessions made by Armenia in neighboring Azerbaijan which involved the transfer of Armenian border villages.

Gallstanyan, a double Canadian and Armenian citizen, was a primate of the Armenian Diocese of Canada in Montreal from 2003 to 2013.

Pashinyan praised the work of the police on his Facebook page, writing in Armenian that they prevented a “great and contemptible” plan from destabilizing his government by acts of terrorism and grasping power.

He also linked to a declaration by the Armenia Inquiry Committee, which had arrested.

The committee said he had seized explosives and weapons and accused Galstanyan’s protest movement of planning bomb attacks and stage accidents on the main roads to disrupt traffic.

The Galstanyan movement denied the accusations, calling them “fiction”.

Termed to comment, Global Affairs Canada said he was “aware that a Canadian citizen had been arrested in Armenia” and added that “consular officials are in contact with local authorities to collect more information”.

The arrests come after having increased tensions between the Armenian government and the country’s apostolic church, which was increasingly critical of Pashinyan after the loss of Armenia against Azerbaijan in a war in 2020 against the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave at the time, and Azerbaid. Flee, abandoning their houses.

Last month, Pashinyan accused the head of the church, Catholicos Karekin II, of secretly to generate a child despite a vow of celibacy. An Armenian priest involved in a Pashinyan social media position is circumcised and not a real Christian. Earlier this week, Pashinyan went to Facebook to say that he is ready to invite both Catholicos and the priest and “prove the opposite”.

Citing confidentiality, Global Affairs Canada said that it could not disclose more information on its involvement since Galstanyan’s arrest.

The Canadian government inaugurated its embassy in Armenia in October 2023 and recently dated its presence there because of the conflict between neighboring Iran and Israel, which sparked an exodus of the Iranian-Armenian border, including some Canadians.

In November 2022, Gallstanyan attended the opening of a small Canadian diplomatic office, An Honorary Consulas a guest.

In 2020, in the last days of the war against Azerbaijan, Galstanyan made waves on social networks with a performance of an Armenian liturgical hymn in a cathedral in the city of Nagorno-Karabakh, even if bombs could be heard outside the structure.

Former immigration minister Jason Kenney shared video on his social networks at the time, calling Galstanyan a “dear friend” and saying he was touching.