Defrocked priest ordered to pay Archbishop Mikael AMD 1 million
The court has upheld a lawsuit filed by Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, head of the Shirak Diocese, against Stepan Asatryan, a former clergyman of Hovhannavank formerly known as Father Aram, Ajapahyan’s defense team reported.
The court ordered defrocked Father Aram to retract defamatory statements about Archbishop Mikael and pay 1 million drams.
The Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of Armenia’s Ararat and Vayots Dzor provinces, presided over by Judge Emin Abgaryan, ruled that defendant Stepan Artak Asatryan must, within five days after the judgment enters into legal force, publicly retract information damaging the honor and dignity of Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan, His Eminence Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, on the Armenian Times website, owned by Dareskizb LLC.
The retraction must take the form of a publicly accessible and visible video message titled “Retraction regarding defamatory information concerning Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan, His Eminence Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan,” stating the following: “I, Stepan Asatryan, publicly declare that the information I stated during an interview in the Armenian Times studio on January 22, 2026, alleging that Mikael Ajapahyan encouraged terrorism, made threats against the Republic of Armenia from prison, and has a wife and daughter, is blatantly false and does not correspond to reality. With this statement, I retract the aforementioned defamatory information presented by me.”
“Defendant Stepan Artak Asatryan shall pay plaintiff Gevorg Artashes Ajapahyan 1,000,000 (one million) Armenian drams as compensation for defamation,” the statement said.
