Armenian lawyer accuses government of false claims to justify crackdown on senior clergy

Armenian lawyer Sergey Harutyunyan has accused the government of intensifying pressure on opponents ahead of parliamentary elections, saying the current leaders are resorting to false claims to justify the crackdown of senior clerics in the country.

Speaking at a workshop organized by the AntiCor anti-corruption platform on Wednesday, Harutyunyan said that arrests of government critics are likely to increase as the vote approaches. “The authorities are trying to suppress and intimidate those they fear,” he said, stressing that the Armenian Apostolic Church has also been targeted.

Harutyunyan dismissed recent remarks by Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at the Council of Europe, where Mirzoyan alleged that clerics in Armenia had called for the murder of democratically elected leaders. “It is absolutely false, it does not correspond to reality,” Harutyunyan said. “Such statements are made to justify the unlawful and disgraceful actions taking place in Armenia.”