Lawyer Ruben Melikyan has alleged that the Armenian authorities unlawfully ordered a search of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin via Facebook. In a post on his Facebook page, Melikyan wrote:

“The Supreme blasphemer has effectively instructed the illegal search of the Mother See via Facebook.

All the ‘law enforcement officers’ who took part in that action will, to me, be indistinguishable from the thugs who carried out the Armenian Genocide of 1915.”

The statement followed remarks by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who had posted on Facebook:

“If Ktrich Nersisyan considers the arrest of Vazgen Galstanyan and Gevorg Ajapahyan unlawful, then he shares the ideology and plans of these individuals, who aim to carry out a military coup, shoot people against walls, and create chaos in the country.

Moreover, under such circumstances, no part of the enlarged Vagharshapat community can be off-limits to law enforcement, especially when, thanks to Ktrich and several others, those areas are not closed off to adultery.”