Pashinyan faces pivotal elections next year and the Church has become a prominent anti-government voice, says BBC

A bitter standoff between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church has seen mass arrests, allegations of a coup plot, and an extraordinary offer by Armenia’s leader to reveal his private parts to prove he is a Christian, the BBC writes.

As noted, social media became Pashinyan’s preferred means of communication after he came to office after Armenia’s so-called Velvet Revolution of 2018. Pashinyan faces pivotal elections next year and the Church has become a prominent anti-government voice since Armenia was defeated in a 2020 war with neighboring Azerbaijan. The publication states that the confrontation between Church and state began at the end of May when the prime minister accused the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, of breaking his vow of celibacy and fathering a child, demanding the church leader’s replacement. The crisis then escalated on Wednesday, when security services detained 16 people, including Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a senior cleric who leads the opposition Sacred Struggle movement.

Among the others detained are an opposition member, a former MP, a businessman and a blogger. The publication notes that one of the most prominent benefactors of the Armenian Apostolic Church and a laureate of high church awards, Samvel Karapetyan, was arrested after publishing a video expressing his support for the Church.