Police block Armenian religious leader's entry to Sardarapat Memorial
A group of police officers formed a human chain to bar His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, from entering the Sardarapat Memorial on May 28 celebrated in Armenia as Republic Day.
“Janissaries are blocking the Supreme Patriarch's access to the Sardarapat Memorial,” protoarchimandrite Zakaria Baghumyan wrote on Facebook, posting a video of the incident.
The entry ban was presumably attributed to the visit of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet members to the memorial complex.
The visit, traditionally paid in the morning, was postponed because members and supporters of the Tavush for the Homeland protest movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan had travelled to Sardarapat to mark the national holiday.