All-Armenian Council for Preservation of Armenian Church condemns  detention of clergymen 

ArmInfo. The Pan-Armenian Council for the Preservation of the Armenian Church issued a statement condemning the detention by Armenian security forces of six  clergymen of the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church  (AAC), including the diocese's head, Mkrtich Proshyan.

In its statement, the Pan-Armenian Council emphasized that the  authorities' latest actions against the clergy are consistent with  the systematic pressure they exert on the AAC. In this regard, the  Council demanded that law enforcement agencies conscientiously  fulfill their responsibilities to protect the law, conscience, and  public responsibility, and not submit to political or personal  orders. "Let every investigator, police officer, or official  remember: their job is to protect justice, not to become a tool of  violence in the hands of one 'unbalanced individual' or group," the  Pan-Armenian Council concluded.

As a reminder, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan previously reported that Armenian  security forces had detained six clergymen of the Aragatsotn Diocese  of the Armenian Apostolic Church, including the diocese's primate,  Mkrtich Proshyan. He claimed that security forces were concealing the  diocesan's whereabouts. Security forces also searched the clergymen's  homes. According to media reports, all of these individuals were  detained based on a statement from Father Aram Arakelyan, the  now-former spiritual abbot of the Hovhann Monastery. Arakelyan has  joined the Armenian authorities' anti-church campaign.