You Have No Business with Mikhail Archbishop, You Will Be Thrown Down, You Will Be Underneath: Leader of the Shirak Diocese

“You did not respond to any of the questions I raised in my speech. I have made 17 inquiries about why I was not charged in 2020, in 2021...,” stated Mikhail Archbishop Azhabapyan, Leader of the Shirak Diocese, addressing public prosecutors in the courtroom.

He enumerated that there were no answers to questions about why a sudden search was conducted in June 2025, why there was an arrest in a masked show in Ejmiatsin, and why individuals who could serve as witnesses, such as former presidents and a reporter from ‘Gala’, were not interrogated.

He mentioned that when it was announced on June 26 that a criminal case had been opened against him, people had commented on that information. One of them stated: “You have no business with Mikhail Archbishop, you will be thrown down, you will be underneath.”

“Now those people's predictions have come true—you are underneath. You do not yet know; we will still reach the honorable court's verdict, and you are still underneath. Starting with the mentally ill Margaryan, they have remained underneath. There is no salvation for you from this. So what was the need to get into all this?” the Archbishop said.

“While you have enormous resources, you are occupied with nothing. You are engaged in nothing,” Mikhail Archbishop Azhabapyan stated.