Vahagn Chakhalyan, the head and activist of Armenia's Will initiative, has been arrested. According to Kima Avdalyan, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, a criminal case has been launched against Chakhalyan on charges of preparing terrorist acts and usurping power.
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"As part of the ongoing criminal case concerning the preparation of terrorist acts and the usurpation of power by the leaders and participants of the Holy Battle movement, a decision by the prosecutor, based on the investigator's motion, has initiated criminal prosecution against Vahagn Chakhalyan. The specific charges against him fall under Article 43-419, Part 1, and Article 43-308, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. He has been detained and brought before the court with a motion for his imprisonment," Avdalyan stated.
The Investigative Committee accuses the participants and leaders of the Holy Battle movement of planning terrorist attacks and actions aimed at usurping power in Armenia. Archbishop Galstanyan is named as the movement's leader and is among 16 people arrested on June 25.
The Investigative Committee claims that members of the movement decided to form a strike group of 200 to 250 individuals with military training. According to the investigation's version, to achieve their "criminal goal," Vazgen Galstanyan and movement members planned terrorist attacks, arson, staging dozens of car accidents on main streets and avenues, and so on.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that law enforcement agencies thwarted a large-scale plan by "criminal oligarchic clerics" aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country and usurping power.
This is not Chakhalyan's first arrest. In May 2024, he was detained in Yerevan near the government building on charges of group hooliganism. The court sentenced Chakhalyan to two months of house arrest.
Chakhalyan was also arrested in November 2020. After the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia signed a joint statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, thousands of people protested in Yerevan. Some of them stormed the parliament and government buildings. Demonstrators severely beat the Speaker of Parliament. Vahagn Chakhalyan, who also participated in military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, was among those who stormed the parliament building and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The court released him on his own recognizance.
Chakhalyan is originally from Samtskhe-Javakheti and held Georgian citizenship. During his time in Georgia, he was one of the leaders of the Javakhki movement.
In 2008, during the United National Movement government, he was arrested on charges of participating in mass riots, illegal acquisition, storage, and carrying of weapons, and hooliganism. The court sentenced Chakhalyan to 10 years in prison, but he was released from prison in 2013 after the change of government, based on the amnesty law adopted by Georgian Dream.
Georgia's third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, stated after the large-scale amnesty that Chakhalyan was directly subordinate to Russian special services and that he was "released to please a foreign power" in 2013.
