Lawyer: Administrative Court Grants AAC Petition, Deems Ministry of Internal Affairs Police Inaction at Surb Astvatsatsin Church Unlawful

ArmInfo. The Administrative Court of Armenia, chaired by Agasi Darbinyan, has granted the petition of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), ruling that the lack of response from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) police regarding the incident at the Surb Astvatsatsin Church in the town of Talin, Aragatsotn Province, was unlawful.

As lawyer Ara Zohrabyan recalled on his Facebook page, the lawsuit was filed after the defrocked clergyman Aramais Takhmazyan (formerly the spiritual pastor of Talin, Father Tade Takhmazyan – Ed.) threatened to enter the holy altar and the vestry of the Surb Astvatsatsin Church. "The Church had approached the police in advance, demanding that they prevent the intrusion and carry out eviction actions in accordance with the Government of Armenia Decree No. 797. The police refused to execute the legally mandated actions, failed to appear at the scene, and did not conduct the inspection prescribed by the government decree," Zohrabyan noted.

According to the lawyer, the Administrative Court established that the police were obligated, based on the received applications, to arrive at the church grounds and perform the actions stipulated by law. "Without visiting the scene and executing the legally established procedure, the police had no right to conclude whether an intrusion had occurred or not. By court decision, the inaction of the police was recognized as unlawful," Zohrabyan summarized.

As a reminder, Takhmazyan was one of the clergymen who joined the anti-church campaign launched by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan against the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was defrocked on December 3, 2025, by a decree of the Supreme Patriarch dated December 2. The basis for initiating the case was a report by the Administrative Council of the Aragatsotn Diocese and the conclusion of the Commission on Awards and Disciplinary Issues of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the AAC. According to these documents, Father Tade discredited the Armenian Church and clergy—including through the dissemination of a public defamatory statement—committed anti-church acts, willfully omitted the part of the liturgy mentioning the names of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the primate of the diocese, and demonstrated disobedience to church authorities.