Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan who is currently under arrest for making calls to seize power, has set up a political party.
"We are creating a new political force," Karapetyan’s press service quoted him as saying on July 14. “We will follow our own path, with our new team, and we can even collaborate with like-minded politicians. We will try to consolidate our people around fairer and greater goals. We reject the black-and-white or other artificial divisions imposed by this government on society, weakening our country," the businessman added.
It’s not clear whether Karapetyan will lead the party from the National Security Service detention facility where he is being held for nearly a month now.
According to a video posted on Facebook by Narek Karapetyan, nephew of Samvel Karapetyan, posted a video on Facebook , the initiative is based on the following principle:
“If there is a professional in the governance system who knows their job and has clean hands, regardless of their political views, they must play an important role in the country’s development. The strategy that has been in place until now will not be effective in 2030. We must be ready for entirely different challenges.”
The I Have Honour faction, led by former president Serzh Sargsyan expressed support for the intitative and willingness to cooperate. “We consider him a like-minded ally, as he clearly stated that his primary goal is a change of power,” said faction leader Hayk Mamijanyan. Another opposition fraction – Hayastan – led by former President Robert Kocharyan, welcomed the initative but did not express any willingness to cooperate.
Karapetyan was jailed on June 18 and arrested for two months on charges of inciting the overthrow of the government. On July 16, Karapetyan was charged with money laundering through several companies, the businessman’s defence team reported, while rejecting the charges against Karapetyan as “obviously unfounded”. “It is obvious that in Armenia recently, “money laundering” has become the most common accusation and is regularly used exclusively in the context of political retribution”, read the defence team’s statement posted on Facebook.
Karapetyan’s arrest followed statements he had made in support of the Armenian Church in its ongoing conflict with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. “If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this”, Karapetyan had said in an interview with local media before his arrest.
