Karapetyan defended Armenian Apostolic Church
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The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statements regarding businessman Samvel Karapetyan completely violate the Armenian constitution, world-renowned lawyer and international human rights advocate Robert Amsterdam told reporters in Yerevan.
According to the constitution of Armenia, there should be a separation between the executive, judicial, and investigative bodies. Investigators should not act at the behest of political power. All these principles are completely violated in Armenia. According to the European Convention, this is unacceptable. It is time for the Armenian government to wake up and assess the impact this has on the world's perception, Amsterdam said.
Armenia has a strong diaspora, they intend to work with it, and the attempts to separate the Armenian Apostolic Church from the Armenian society will never succeed, Amsterdam said, reported News.am.
He said the Armenian authorities’ attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church were foolish when 93 percent of the Armenian population are believers.
In June 2025, Karapetyan was arrested in Armenia and formally charged with making public calls to illegally seize power, under Part 2 of Article 422 of Armenia’s Criminal Code. The charges followed a video statement in which he defended the Armenian Apostolic Church and said, “If the politicians do not succeed, we will intervene in our own way in this campaign against the church,” a remark interpreted as a challenge to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Pashinyan had previously accused the head of the Church, Catholicos Karekin II, of violating his celibacy vows, sparking a political and religious feud.
Karapetyan denied the charges, and his legal team claimed they were politically motivated. Additional accusations of fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering were later brought against him. While in detention, Karapetyan announced plans to form a “fundamentally new political force” to help bring about a change in government, though he did not rule out cooperation with existing opposition figures. The I Have Honour parliamentary faction expressed support for his initiative, while the Hayastan faction acknowledged his political entry but stopped short of committing to collaboration.
