Armenian Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan jailed for two years on coup charges amid church-government rift

The cleric has rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated.

The verdict was issued by a court in Yerevan on Friday. Ajapahyan had been in custody since his arrest in late June.

Prosecutors had sought two and a half years in prison, while his defense argued that he was innocent, according to RT.

The indictment accused the archbishop of calling for the overthrow of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's government in two media interviews, one in February 2024 and another in June 2025.

Following his arrest, Ajapahyan declared, "The Lord will not forgive the pathetic minions who know very well what they do."

RT's report also noted that the case comes amid growing discontent in Armenia over Pashinyan's decision to hand over several border villages to Azerbaijan.

The move sparked widespread protests, with opposition groups and prominent figures in the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) accusing the prime minister of betraying national interests. Pashinyan, however, defended the handover as part of efforts to end the decades-long conflict with Baku.

In August, Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, voiced concern over what he described as the "illegal campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and its clergy by the ruling political force," according to a statement published by the church.

The dispute between the government and the AAC has widened further after the arrest of another high-profile cleric, Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, in June on charges of terrorism and preparing a coup.

Reacting to the escalating rift, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in June that it was an "internal matter" for Armenia.

However, he added that many in the large Armenian diaspora in Russia were "watching these events with pain" and did not "accept how this is happening," RT reported. (ANI)