Director of Interchurch Relations  Department of  Mother See   declared defrocked at his own request

ArmInfo. By order of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Archimandrite Shahe Ananyan, Director of the Interchurch Relations Department of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin, has been declared defrocked at his own request.

According to the press office of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin, the  defrocked cleric will henceforth be counted among the laity under the  name Artyom Ananyan. 

Earlier,  Ananyan had  made statements condemning the anti-church  campaign launched by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in May  2025.