“As Vice Chair of the [U.S. congressional] Armenia Caucus, I am deeply concerned about recent arrests of Armenian dissidents, including Mr. Samvel Karapetian and clergy of the Armenian Church,” Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California, said in a post on X.
“Our relationship with Armenia is built on our shared dedication to democracy,” he wrote. “I expressed these concerns earlier today to Armenia’s Ambassador [to the United States] Lilit Makunts.”
Sherman, whose California constituency is home to many ethnic Armenians, is the first Western official known to have publicly criticized the arrests widely attributed to Pashinian’s ongoing efforts to depose the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Both the U.S. administration and the European Union have refrained from any criticism. Moreover, French President Emmanuel Macron effectively endorsed the crackdown last week after a phone call with Pashinian.
Armenian opposition politicians have for years accused Western powers -- and especially the EU -- of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in their country for geopolitical reasons. European officials regularly praise Pashinian’s government, which has been seeking to reorient Armenia towards the West, for carrying out what they call major reforms.
The Moscow-based Karapetian, who is arguably the richest Armenian in the world, was arrested and charged with calling for a violent regime change on June 18 hours after denouncing Pashinian’s campaign against the Armenian Church. On June 25, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian and 14 of his supporters were arrested on charges of plotting to topple the government through “terrorist acts.”
Another archbishop, Mikael Ajapahian, was arrested two days later. Like Karapetian, he is accused of calling for a violent overthrow of the government. All three men reject the separate charges as politically motivated.