MP: Colonel Mihran Makhsudyan's arrest was predictable amid government crackdown

The detention of retired Colonel Mihran Makhsudyan comes as no surprise, according to MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem faction. He claims the Armenian authorities have been systematically targeting critics of the border delimitation process with Azerbaijan since last year.

In a social media post on Saturday, he described Makhsudyan as someone with a sharp and direct communication style, unafraid to speak uncomfortable truths, fully aware that such candor would eventually draw the government’s scrutiny.

"In Makhsudyan’s case, too, there were no legitimate grounds for detention. Yet the authorities appear increasingly comfortable launching baseless prosecution and locking people away," Abrahamyan wrote.

Makhsudyan has been placed in two-month detention as part of a criminal case into an alleged plot to carry out terrorist acts and seize power in Armenia involving Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the Holy Struggle movement.