Armenian authorities have arrested a prominent Christian cleric, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, along with 13 other people and charged them with orchestrating a plot to overthrow the government.

In a statement, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said it had filed criminal charges against Galstanyan and 15 others whom they said had “acquired the means and tools necessary to commit a terrorist attack and seize power”.

A total of 14 individuals have been arrested, investigators said, without naming the people.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on his Telegram channel that the authorities had thwarted a “large and sinister plan by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy'” to take power in Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus.

Galstanyan’s arrest is part of a growing confrontation between Pashinyan and the powerful Armenian Apostolic Church, who have traded increasingly bitter allegations in recent weeks ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

Some senior clerics have previously called for Pashinyan to step down over Armenia’s military defeats against Azerbaijan.

Last week, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan was detained on accusations of making public calls to usurp power after he accused the government of waging a campaign against the church and said he would act “in his own way” to stop it, according to state agency Armenpress.

Lawyers for Karapetyan say the businessman denies wrongdoing.

A lawyer for Galstanyan, Sergei Arutyunyan, told journalists on Wednesday that his client was being unfairly criminalised by the government, which he said was seeking to “create a smokescreen and simulate that they’ve caught a terrorist group”.

Pashinyan rose to power on a wave of street protests in 2018 but came under heavy domestic pressure after major losses to Azerbaijan in a brief war in 2020.

In 2023, Azerbaijan retook the whole of the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence for decades.

Tapping into popular anger over defeats and territorial concessions, Galstanyan and his supporters led days of street protests last summer to demand the removal of Pashinyan.

Detailing the charges that he faces now, authorities alleged that Galstanyan and associates had recruited more than 1000 people, mainly former soldiers and police officers, to block roads, paralyse traffic, incite violence and shut off the internet, with the goal of destabilising the government and seizing power.

The Investigative Committee published audio recordings purporting to show Galstanyan and others discussing plans for the alleged coup attempt as well as a photograph showing firearms and other weapons they said were discovered during searches.

Pashinyan, who faces parliamentary elections in June 2026, has moved towards signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan although tensions between the two countries remain high and the number of reported ceasefire violations has surged this year.

—AAP