The activists are understood to be mostly affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party and an opposition movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian. Their precise number was not clear.
Dashnaktsutyun leader Ishkhan Saghatelian said “about a dozen” members of his party from various parts of the country were in police custody as of 8 p.m. local time. For his part, Galstanian reported more than two dozen arrests made among his loyalists.
The Armenian Interior Ministry essentially confirmed the detentions, saying that the police received “operational information about the preparation of actions aimed at disrupting public order.” It did not elaborate.
“The police are carrying out enhanced service, within the framework of which preventive and explanatory work is being undertaken,” said a ministry spokesman. “We call for the maintenance of public order. Any illegal manifestation will be met with a tough response.”
“If the police, prosecutors and the National Security Service care about our country’s constitutional order and public order then they must go after Nikol Pashinian because he is the main threat to that,” scoffed Saghatelian.
The extraordinary crackdown came as Pashinian was about to hold talks in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Saghatelian said Pashinian is thus showcasing his “desire to please Erdogan even more and fulfill his demands” and neutralize domestic opposition to further Armenian concessions to Turkey as well as Azerbaijan.
“He probably fears that something might happen on his return [from Turkey] and is already unleashing repressions,” Galstanian said for his part. “They cannot intimidate us in this way.”