Latest news with #NationalSecurityService
EVN Report
2 days ago
- Politics
- EVN Report
Tensions Escalate Between Armenian Government and Church
In EVN Report's news roundup for the week of June 27: Tensions continue to escalate between the Armenian government and the Church; Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who led last year's opposition protests, has been detained on charges of attempting to overthrow the government; National Security Service officers clash with supporters and clergy at the Holy See of Etchmiadzin while trying to detain another archbishop and more.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Crowds block Armenian security forces from arresting a clergyman who has criticized the government
Armenian National Security Service officers clash with parishioners as they arrive to arrest Mikael Ajapahyan, Archbishop of Gyumri and Shirak, at Echmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church outside Yerevan, Armenia, Friday, June 27, 2025. (Grigor Yepremyan, PAN Photo via AP) YEREVAN, Armenia — Security forces faced off with crowds Friday at the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the government sought to arrest a clergyman in the latest move against outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The tense confrontation in Etchmiadzin, outside the capital of Yerevan, ended with security forces withdrawing from the site without arresting Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan to avoid escalating the situation, Armenia's National Security Service said. The NSS asked him to turn himself it, and it was not immediately clear if he did so. Images on social media showed clergymen in black robes who had rushed to the scene jostling with police as members of the NSS stood by. Bells of a nearby cathedral in the complex, known as the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and home to church leader Catholicos Karekin II, rang out. Pashinyan was the focus of protests last year by tens of thousands of demonstrators after Armenia agreed to hand over control of several border villages to Azerbaijan and to normalize relations between the neighbors and bitter rivals. On Wednesday, authorities arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement, accusing him of plotting to overthrow the government. Armenia's Investigative Committee alleged he was planning to carry out a sabotage campaign — charges that his lawyer described as 'fiction.' Members of Sacred Struggle accused the government of cracking down on their political rights. Another vocal critic of Pashinyan, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, was arrested last week after being accused of calling for the government's overthrow that he denied. The NSS said in a statement that citizens should 'refrain from escalating the situation and not to hinder law enforcement agencies in the execution of their duties.' It also urged Ajapahyan to not hide from law enforcement agencies and to appear before authorities. Government prosecutors accuse Ajapahyan of calling for the ouster of the government in an interview on Feb. 3, 2024, according to his lawyer, Ara Zohrabyan. Ajapahyan initially said he would accompany police, but ultimately did not enter the awaiting car. 'I have never hidden and I am not going to hide now,' Ajapahyan said. 'I say that what is happening now is lawlessness. I have never been and am not a threat to this country, the main threat is in the government.' Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in territorial disputes since the early 1990s, as various parts of the Soviet Union pressed for independence from Moscow. After the USSR collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatist forces backed by the Armenian military won control of Azerbaijan's region of Karabakh and nearby territories. In 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured broad swaths of territory that were held for nearly three decades by Armenian forces. A lightning military campaign in September 2023 saw Azerbaijan fully reclaim control of Karabakh, and Armenia later handed over the border villages. Pashinyan has recently sought to normalize relations with Azerbaijan. Last week, he also visited Azerbaijan's top ally, Turkey, to mend a historic rift. Turkey and Armenia also have a more than century-old dispute over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide. Turkey vehemently rejects the label, conceding that many died in that era but insisting the death toll is inflated and resulted from civil unrest. Attempts to impeach Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018, were unsuccessful. Although territorial concessions were a core issue for Sacred Struggle, it has expanded to a wide array of complaints about Pashinyan as the Apostolic Church's relationship with the government deteriorated. On June 8, Pashinyan called for Karekin II to resign after accusing him of fathering a child despite a vow of celibacy. The church released a statement at the time accusing Pashinyan of undermining Armenia's 'spiritual unity' but did not address the claim about the child. Avet Demourian, The Associated Press
Rudaw Net
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Iraq monitoring social media amid regional tensions
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's National Security Service said on Saturday it is monitoring social media and will pursue legal action against any users posting content to incite sectarian and political tensions. 'In light of the repercussions of the current international crisis and the attempts witnessed in the Iraqi arena to mislead public opinion and harm civil and societal peace, the Iraqi National Security Service affirms its careful monitoring of content published on social media sites that aims to incite strife and sectarian and political tensions, distort facts, and falsify realities,' the agency said in a statement. 'Freedom of expression does not mean exceeding legal controls or compromising national security,' it said, adding that legal action will be taken against those threatening 'societal peace' or undermining 'the unity of Iraq.' Tensions in Iraq, a close ally of Iran, are high with the conflict between Iran and Israel now in its second week.
Shafaq News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Justice for Feyli Kurds: Dracula of the Baath sentenced to death
Shafaq News/ Iraq handed down two death sentences on Thursday, including one against a former Saddam-era intelligence officer accused of leading brutal campaigns. A security source told Shafaq News that Iraq's High Criminal Court sentenced Khairallah Hammadi Abdullah Jaro al-Naseri, a top Baathist official known for overseeing repression against Feyli Kurds, to death by hanging after being captured by the National Security Service earlier this year. He reportedly confessed, in the presence of victims' families, to directing executions, forced disappearances, torture, and mass burials. Dubbed 'the Dracula of the Baath,' al-Naseri operated across Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region and was long considered one of the regime's most brutal enforcers. His conviction is seen as a 'major milestone' in Iraq's pursuit of the so-called ' Group of Five '—a list of key Baathist fugitives. Separately, the Criminal Court in Najaf handed a double death sentence to an ISIS fighter convicted of killing two police officers, injuring others during interrogation, and torching civilian vehicles to incite fear and destabilize the province, the Supreme Judicial Council stated.
Budapest Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
National Security Service identifies more Ukrainian spies
Máté Kocsis, ruling Fidesz's parliamentary group leader, said the National Security Service have identified more Ukrainian spies, including Roland Tseber as an 'illegal' officer of the Ukrainian intelligence service, and István Holló, who is under investigation by the National Office of Investigation on suspicion of espionage activities. After a meeting of the national security committee on Tuesday, Kocsis told a press conference that Tseber, as an 'illegal' officer, had probably been actively building relations with members of the Hungarian opposition for a long time. Kocsis added that Tseber had met several leading politicians and senior officials of parliamentary parties as part of his activities in Hungary. In the meantime, Holló's activities in Hungary involved active intelligence activities to learn about Hungary's army and energy systems in cooperation with Ukrainian military intelligence, Kocsis said. He added that Tseber was earlier a dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizen, but he returned his Hungarian citizenship in 2017. He has built a political career in Ukraine, including as a representative of the Transcarpathian County Council, Kocsis said. Tseber had been on the radar of the Hungarian national security authorities for years, and he was banned from entering and staying in Hungary due to his intensifying activities in 2024, he added. Holló, who had also been on the radar of Hungarian counterintelligence for a long time, is a Ukrainian citizen who had never held Hungarian citizenship, Kocsis said. He has been involved in activities to influence Hungary's international reputation in a negative way and aimed to make the Hungarian government change its position concerning Ukraine with the help of external pressure, he added. In response to a question about the transparency law, Kocsis said the aim was to prevent, for instance, the disinformation campaigns that are currently underway from Ukraine, and to protect the Hungarian public space from foreign secret services and foreign state interests.
