Disgraced Priest Aram Asatryan Granted 5 Days to Issue a Denial

Former clergyman of Hovhannes Monastery, Father Aram (currently Stepanyan Asatryan) will have to repay 1 million drams to the Archbishop of Shirak, Mikael Ajapahyan.

The team of defenders for Mikael has announced that the first instance court of general jurisdiction in the Ararat and Vayots Dzor regions of Armenia has accepted Mikael's lawsuit.

The court has ordered Stepanyan Asatryan to publicly deny the defamatory statements he made about Mikael by releasing a widely accessible and public video message.

“I, Stepanyan Asatryan, publicly declare that the information I provided during the interview on January 22, 2026, in the Armenian Time studio, suggesting that Mikael Ajapahyan was promoting terrorism, issuing threats from prison against the Republic of Armenia, and has a woman and a daughter, is entirely false and does not correspond to reality. With this statement, I denounce the aforementioned defamatory information I provided,” states the text of the denial as indicated in the court's decision.

Stepanyan Asatryan must publish the denial on the website of the newspaper “Armenian Time,” owned by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s family, within 5 days after the court's decision enters into legal force.