The priest, Farther Aram Asatrian, began attacking the top clergy more than a month ago amid Pashinian’s attempts to depose the church’s supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II. He accused unnamed senior clergymen of corruption and indecent behavior in statements widely construed as a show of support for that campaign.
Asatrian, who has served at the medieval Hovanavank monastery 30 kilometers northwest of Yerevan, went on to allege that he was forced to attend opposition rallies held in 2021. Law-enforcement authorities used the allegations to round up on October 15 13 other clergymen from the church diocese in the Aragatsotn province encompassing Hovanavank. They pressed criminal charges against two of them, notably the diocese primate, Bishop Mkrtich Proshian.
Both Proshian and the other jailed priest reject the accusations as politically motivated. Armenian opposition leaders likewise maintain that the criminal case is part of Pashinian’s efforts to seize control of the ancient church to which the vast majority of Armenians belong.
After an initial denial, Asatrian, who has been labelled as “Judas” by fellow priests and government critics, admitted giving testimony to investigators before the arrests. He claimed that he lied because the Investigative Committee “ordered” him to keep that fact secret.
In a statement announcing the defrocking approved by Garegin, the church’s Mother See said Asatrian broke “the covenant of obedience” and discredited the church, Proshian and other fellow clergymen with his public statements. It said the decision is based on the recommendations of the jailed bishop and a disciplinary commission of the Mother See. Asatrian declined to attend meetings of the commission held earlier this month.
Asatrian responded by saying that he will disobey the punitive decision and “continue to serve my people at Hovanavank.” He warned the church leadership against trying to forcibly oust him from the monastery where about a dozen police officers were deployed on Tuesday. He defended the police presence while claiming to enjoy the backing of thousands of believers living in the surrounding parish.
“It’s becoming clear that what Armenia’s prime minister says is right, and I will stand with the truth,” the defrocked priest told reporters. “Yes, I will support Armenia’s prime minister.”
Meanwhile, Pashinian and his political allies condemned the defrocking. The prime minister said he will attend a mass which Asatrian plans to celebrate at Hovanavank on Sunday.
Following the October 15 arrests, Pashinian dismissed opposition claims that he declared war on the church at the behest of Azerbaijan, whose top Shia Muslim cleric has repeatedly condemned its top clergy in recent months. The premier began attacking the clergy in late May just as Garegin accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, destroying the region’s Armenian churches and illegally occupying Armenian border areas during an international conference in Switzerland.
Addressing hundreds of opposition activists and supporters at the weekend, Garegin declared that the church is undaunted by “the reprehensible anti-church actions of the authorities.” The Catholicos urged the church’s faithful to “stand firm” as he himself risked arrest.
Pro-government news websites publicized on Friday purported audio of a 2023 phone conversation between an Echmiadzin-based archbishop and a now defrocked priest who claimed that Garegin told him to attend anti-government rallies along with his relatives. The Investigative Committee swiftly launched a formal inquiry under the same articles of the Armenian Criminal Code that were used against Bishop Proshian. The law-enforcement agency has not yet publicly named any suspects in the case.