Ajapahyan: Welcoming the 2018 "Coup" Was My Life's Biggest Mistake

It has already been said that all this is a political order and political persecution by today's authorities. Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan stated this during the court session held on September 15.

"I made the biggest mistake of my life when I welcomed the coup in 2018. The change in the attitude of this government towards me begins with the "New Armenia, New Patriarch" movement, when they hoped that I would join that movement; the opposite happened. And I became a thorn in the side of this government when I started to criticize them," Mikael Ajapahyan stated in court.

The holy father, however, noted that despite his criticism, he was on the side of the state and statehood.

It is recalled that according to the indictment, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was charged with... not agreeing with the positions of the RA government on issues related to domestic and foreign policy, using the mass media, information and communication technologies, first on February 3, 2024, and then on June 21, 2025, during interviews given to representatives of the mass media, he made public calls to seize power.