Thousands rallied in downtown Yerevan’s Diana Abgar Park today in a show of solidarity for businessman Samvel Karapetyan who was arrested on June 17 on charges that he made public calls for people "to seize power and to overthrow the country’s constitutional order".

Karapetyan, who owns the Tashir Group conglomerate, had earlier given an interview to news.am in which he denounced those politicians, including Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, who have called for a new leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Archbishop Ezras Nersisyan, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Russia and New Nakhichevan, opened the rally by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Archbishop Gevorg Saroyan, Primate of Armenia’s Masyatsotn Diocese, then addressed the crowd and called for  Karapetyan’s immediate release, describing him as a “national benefactor”.

During the rally, speeches were also made by Samvel Karapetyan’s nephew, Narek Karapetyan, parliamentary deputies Anna Grigoryan and Aghvan Vardanyan, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan, and historian Ruben Melkonyan.

After the speeches, the rallygoers marched to the Yerevan-Central Penitentiary where Karapetyan is being held in pre-trial detention for two months.