Alleging a broad-based conspiracy to topple his government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is taking aggressive action to stamp out opposition within the Armenian Apostolic Church.

On June 27, dozens of law enforcement personnel, including a contingent of National Security Services officers, descended on the Church’s administrative center, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, to arrest an archbishop, Mikael Adjapakhyan, on suspicion of making a public call for the government’s overthrow. Clerics and devout believers put up spirited resistance, forcing law enforcement officers off Etchmiadzin’s grounds without taking Adjapakhyan into custody. However, the archbishop ultimately decided to surrender to authorities.

"I'm not afraid of anything. I am being persecuted illegally, all accusations are made up,” the Novaya Gazeta Europa outlet quoted him as saying before being taken away. A court ordered two months of pre-trial detention for Adjapakhyan.

Three days earlier, Armenia’s Investigative Committee ordered the arrest of at least 14 people for allegedly conspiring “to commit terrorism and seize power.” The alleged ringleader of the conspiracy is Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who headed a mass anti-government protest last year in opposition to a territorial transfer deal with Azerbaijan.

The arrests followed publication by Civic.am of an article that reportedly included proof of a coup plot involving clergy, opposition members and Russia. Pashinyan praised the security services, saying in a social media post that “law enforcement officers prevented a large and sinister plan by the ‘criminal oligarchic clergy’ to destabilize the Republic of Armenia and seize power.”

Amid the Etchmiadzin standoff, Church leaders ordered the church bells of Armenian churches across the nation to ring an alarm, evidently in the hopes of stoking a popular outcry against the government’s actions. The effort did not produce any spontaneous anti-government rallies. Meanwhile opposition MPs in parliament announced support for a no-confidence vote in Pashinyan’s government, but lacked sufficient backing to secure passage.

Russia had voiced complaints about the earlier detention of Armenian-Russian oligarch Samvel Karapetyan, who Pashinyan indicated was connected to the coup conspiracy, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov characterized the latest round of arrests as an internal matter for Armenia. Karapetyan has been transferred to a maximum-security detention facility operated by the National Security Service.

While the Kremlin declares readiness to remain on the sidelines as the domestic Armenian political struggle plays out, state-affiliated media outlets are pummeling Pashinyan. A commentary published by EADaily accused Pashinyan of carrying out policies for the benefit of Turkey. “Pashinyan is not building European Armenia - he is building Erdogan's Armenia,” the commentary stated, referring to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “This is not just a ‘traitor’ or a failed politician, but a person whose personal psychological traumas, ideological ambitions and historical context converged into one vector. This makes it an ideal destroyer.”

Though clearly not popular in Moscow, Pashinyan appears to retain the backing of key European leaders. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas began a two-day visit to Yerevan on June 29 for meetings with Pashinyan and other top officials. In a tacit show of support, a statement issued by Kallas’s office did not raise the topic of the arrests of church leaders publicly. French President Emmauel Macron offered a clearer endorsement of Pashinyan’s political course following a June 29 phone call with the Armenian prime minister.

“I expressed France’s solidarity in response to the attempts to destabilize Armenia’s democracy,” Macron stated in a post on social media. “I also reaffirmed our support for his courageous efforts to establish peace with Azerbaijan and normalize relations with Turkey.”