Law enforcement raided the local seat of the national church, which had protested territorial concessions to Azerbaijan

A prominent Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) cleric chose to surrender himself to police despite protesters' attempts to defend him, as the conflict between the opposition and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan deepens.

Police raided the seat of the country's Apostolic Church, the largest in Armenia, in the city of Vagharshapat, leading to major clashes between clerics, church members, and law enforcement.

Though pro-Church protesters had managed to block earlier attempts to detain Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan, the cleric chose to walk to the Investigative Committee (IC) building and turn himself in. Earlier, authorities had tried to detain Adjapahyan on suspicion of attempting to stage a coup-accusations the cleric has denied.

A number of pro-Church protesters have been detained, and the IC has announced that it has launched criminal proceedings into obstruction of justice.

The country's government has been at odds with the AAC for months, as it emerged as the main driver behind mass protests against Pashinyan's agreement to hand over several border villages to Azerbaijan, with which Armenia has border disputes.

While Pashinyan portrayed the move as a pathway to mending tenuous relations between the two former Soviet republics, many Armenians have seen it as a betrayal of national interests.As the stand-off escalated, Armenian authorities on Wednesday arrested Bagrat Galstanyan, a high-profile cleric and a key protest leader, on terrorism charges.

They also detained Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who voiced support for the AAC. Karapetyan faces charges of calling for the overthrow of the state.