Another opposition figure arrested in Armenia amid post-election crackdown

By Siranush Adamyan

Armenian authorities arrested opposition figure Avetik Chalabyan on Wednesday and asked a court to order his pre-trial detention, the latest in a string of criminal cases brought against government critics around the country's June 7 parliamentary elections.

Chalabyan, coordinator of the opposition HayaQve civic initiative, was detained at his home early in the morning. The Investigative Committee said it had charged him with preparing to obstruct citizens' free exercise of their voting rights, acting as part of a group, and by prior agreement.

According to the committee, Chalabyan traveled abroad in May and met officials of another state, seeking to persuade them to use their official positions to pressure Armenian citizens employed by businesses there to travel to Armenia and vote for the Strong Armenia alliance on June 7. Investigators said a forensic examination confirmed that Chalabyan was the person heard in a recording circulated online. He has not publicly addressed the specific allegations.

Chalabyan's wife, Anahit Adamyan, said in a video posted to Facebook that about seven or eight police and investigators arrived at the family's home around 7:10 a.m., searched the apartment, seized her husband's phones, and took him away. She said the search turned up nothing and called the case political persecution. She linked the timing to the Constitutional Court's pending review of opposition appeals against the election results, saying the aim was to isolate her husband while that case is heard. 

Chalabyan is a former senior partner at McKinsey & Company who has been active in opposition politics for more than a decade. He was arrested in 2022 on charges of paying students to join anti-government protests, a case the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly and the U.S. State Department cited as problematic, and was later barred from organizing rallies.

The new arrest follows months of legal action against opposition politicians, lawmakers, and their businesses, much of it concentrated in the weeks before and after the vote.

In late May, days before the election, the National Security Service detained Andranik Tevanyan, leader of the Mother Armenia party and the second candidate on the Prosperous Armenia list, on charges of high treason and espionage. The Central Electoral Commission first approved the Prosecutor General's request to lift his candidate immunity, and a Yerevan court then ordered him held for two months. Prosecutors allege Tevanyan passed state secrets from a closed 2024 parliamentary session on Armenia-Azerbaijan border demarcation. His lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, said the case file contained no evidence of any crime.

Pressure on Prosperous Armenia and its leader, businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, intensified after the party fell just short of the threshold to enter parliament. A criminal case for large-scale tax evasion was opened against Tsarukyan on June 9, and he was placed under a travel ban. Before the vote, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused him of embezzling $300 million and announced plans to nationalize Tsarukyan's Araratcement plant. This week, the Economy Ministry revoked the operating license of his family's Shangri La casino, citing what it said were falsified financial filings. Tsarukyan was stopped from leaving the country at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport.

Former President Robert Kocharyan, who leads the Armenia Alliance, was stripped of his candidate immunity by the Central Electoral Commission on June 17. His lawyer said he expects to be charged with abuse of office and money laundering over a 2004 government-approved transaction that he says neither Kocharyan nor his family took part in. Kocharyan, who was also blocked from leaving the country, has called the case fabricated and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the commission's decision, with a hearing at the Administrative Court set for Tuesday. The commission has also cleared the prosecution of several other Armenia Alliance and Strong Armenia candidates, some of whom have been detained.

Investigators on Tuesday searched the home of Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an opposition lawmaker from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, in a case the authorities link to about $680,000 in frozen assets and what they describe as a failure to properly declare property. Saghatelyan, who says the case is politically driven, has challenged an underlying enforcement order in court.

The cases build on the government's confrontation with Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, whose Strong Armenia alliance finished second in the election. Karapetyan has been held since June 2025 — first in detention, later under house arrest — on charges of calling for the overthrow of the government, which he denies. After his arrest, the government moved to nationalize his Electric Networks of Armenia, the country's sole power distributor, and revoked the company's license. His nephew Narek Karapetyan, was later placed under a travel ban, and another Strong Armenia candidate, Davit Ghazinyan, was jailed pending trial on election-bribery charges.

The case against Chalabyan appears linked to the Independent Observer monitoring coalition, which includes the Union of Informed Citizens, a watchdog led by Daniel Ioannisyan. Ioannisyan said on Facebook that his group had reported an alleged effort by Russian officials, together with Armenian citizens, to sway the vote, and had forwarded Chalabyan's recording to prosecutors. He said he assumed Chalabyan was arrested on the basis of material the group submitted, and that everyone who knowingly took part in Russian interference should answer in court.

Civil Contract won the June 7 election and secured a new parliamentary majority. Three forces entered parliament: the ruling party, the Strong Armenia alliance and the Armenia Alliance. Prosperous Armenia was excluded after a disputed electoral commission ruling. Seven opposition groups have challenged the results in the Constitutional Court.

The government says the criminal investigations reflect the normal work of law enforcement agencies, while opposition figures and some rights advocates say they are part of a broader effort to weaken political challengers after the vote.