Aghvan Vardanyan, an MP from the Armenia opposition faction, has called the recent entry of law enforcement into the grounds of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin a desecration. Speaking in the National Assembly, Vardanyan sharply criticized the operation, reports Radar Armenia.

“Storming Holy Etchmiadzin with weapons, masks, and berets is desecration. You’ve done even that. You’re faithless, devoid of Armenian identity. Armenians everywhere are ashamed. No one imagined you were capable of this.

The Mongols didn’t enter Etchmiadzin, the Turks couldn’t—but the evil that has overtaken Armenia has now entered the very temple of our national identity. You won’t get away with this,” Vardanyan said.

On the morning of June 27, around 30 masked individuals raided the Shirak Diocese headquarters. However, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, head of the diocese, was attending a priestly council meeting at the Mother See in Etchmiadzin. The National Security Service (NSS) entered the grounds to arrest him. Ajapahyan later turned himself in and was remanded in custody for two months by court order.

Ajapahyan faces criminal charges under articles relating to public calls for the usurpation of power, violation of territorial integrity, renunciation of sovereignty, or the violent overthrow of the constitutional order.