Issued two months ago and published in the past two days, the first-instance decisions reject secular review of the priests’ removal, leaving them without court-ordered reinstatement.
Armenian courts dismissed former priests Stepan Asatryan’s and Aramayis Takhmazyan’s challenges to their removal from the clergy, finding that secular courts cannot examine the disputes. Azatutyun reported on October 23 that the first-instance decisions were issued two months earlier but officially published only during the preceding two days.
The two men had sued the Mother See, seeking to overturn Catholicos Karekin II’s decisions defrocking them—removing their status as clergy—and return to religious service. The dismissals leave that request unsuccessful at first instance.
According to Azatutyun’s account of the judicial reasoning, the courts considered Armenia’s Constitution, legislation, international law and legal precedents. They concluded that defrocking is governed exclusively by the Armenian Apostolic Church’s internal rules, not secular legislation. The basis for dismissal was therefore that the disputes were not for secular courts to examine.
The Mother See welcomed the decisions as protecting Church self-government. It said appointments and dismissals of diocesan leaders and clergy are internal Church matters within the Catholicos’s exclusive authority.
Azatutyun also reported that defrocked bishop Gevorg Saroyan lost a separate challenge on the same reasoning. He is seeking restoration to religious service and his former post. That case provides another example of the courts’ approach, rather than a final appellate ruling on these disputes.
Supreme Judicial Council spokesperson Tsovinar Khachatryan attributed the publication timing to the cases’ unusual nature, judges’ workloads and vacations. She described the cases as unprecedented in Armenia’s judicial system.
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Both former priests disputed the decisions. Takhmazyan said the first-instance judges had erred. Asatryan argued that a court could hear his case because he regarded the Church leader as a political party leader rather than a religious leader.
Asatryan told Azatutyun that he intended to appeal to Armenia’s Court of Appeal and continue his challenge in higher courts.
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