A court in Yerevan handed the sentence to Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian at the end of an unusually quick trial condemned by the church, opposition groups and other critics of the Armenian government as a travesty of justice. It convicted him last week of calling for a violent regime change.
Ajapahian was taken into custody on June 27 the day after Pashinian threatened to forcibly remove Catholicos Garegin II from his Echmiadzin headquarters if the supreme head of the church refuses to resign. Security forces met with fierce resistance from hundreds of angry priests and laymen when they raided the Mother See in a failed bid to arrest Ajapahian there. The latter surrendered to investigators several hours after the unprecedented raid.
The case against the 62-year-old cleric highly critical of the government is based on a 2024 interview in which he discussed the need for a coup d’etat in the country. The Office of the Prosecutor-General concluded at the time that his remarks do not warrant criminal charges. It now says that he was prosecuted for making a similar statement in June this year.
Ajapahian, who heads the church diocese in Armenia’s Shirak province, continued to reject the accusation as politically motivated throughout his trial that began on August 15. He remained visibly calm and smiled after the presiding judge, Armine Meliksetian, read out the final verdict in the courtroom packed with his supporters.
The supporters, most of them churchgoers from Shirak, reacted furiously to the jail sentence, pouring scorn on Meliksetian and accusing her of executing government orders. They continued to protest outside the court building.
Ajapahian’s lawyers said, meanwhile, that they will appeal against the ruling. They have repeatedly portrayed the unusually fast pace of the trial as s a further indication that the court is guided by government orders.
“Monsignor Mikael also expected this verdict,” one of the lawyers, Ara Zohrabian, told reporters. “Right from the beginning he was mentally prepared for being subjected to political persecution.”
The Armenian Church swiftly condemned the ruling as a “gross violation of the principle of freedom of speech and religion,” “direct challenge to the democratic social order” and “one of the clear manifestations of the authorities' anti-church campaign.” Condemnations also poured in from Armenian opposition groups and their representatives.
“This ruling is yet another proof that the current government is building a dictatorial regime in Armenia where the courts are turning into a blunt tool in the government’s hands,” the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) charged in a statement.
Pashinian has insisted in recent weeks that he has not abandoned his efforts to oust Garegin II despite a backlash from opposition groups and other supporters of the Catholicos. In a July 20 appeal, the premier urged supporters to be ready to “free” the Mother See from Garegin.
Opposition leaders have warned Pashinian against trying to seize the seat of the Catholicos. They have also told their own supporters to be ready to gather there to defend Garegin.
Pashinian’s campaign has prompted concern from the World Council of Churches (WCC), a Switzerland-based organization uniting 352 Orthodox and Protestant churches. In a July statement, the WCC called on the Armenian government to “refrain from actions or statements” undermining “the principles of religious freedom, due process, and the peaceful exercise of faith.”