Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan served as the Primate of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was arrested in June 2025 as part of the wave of clergy detentions that followed the suppression of the Holy Struggle movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. In October 2025, Ajapahyan was sentenced to two years in prison, making his case one of the most concrete legal outcomes of the government’s confrontation with senior church figures.
Groong has followed his arrest, trial, and sentencing as part of broader coverage of the church-state conflict in Armenia and what critics describe as the Pashinyan government’s use of the judicial system to neutralize politically inconvenient clergy.
Episode 479 | Recorded: October 20, 2025
Episode 477 | Recorded: October 6, 2025
Episode 477 | Recorded: October 6, 2025
Episode 464 | Recorded: August 25, 2025
Episode 464 | Recorded: August 25, 2025
Episode 462 | Recorded: August 15, 2025
Episode 462 | Recorded: August 15, 2025
Episode 457 | Recorded: August 3, 2025
Episode 457 | Recorded: August 3, 2025