Yerevan — Detained Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan issued a public message on Thursday, read aloud by his attorney Aram Vardevanyan outside the National Security Service (NSS) building. Karapetyan, currently under arrest, called for national unity, denounced the current government, and vowed to fight for Armenia’s future.
“Dear compatriots,
The past few days have, without exaggeration, been among the most significant in my life. Though unlawfully detained, I have not experienced a single moment of isolation or loneliness. The friendship, love, and respect I’ve felt — not only from family, friends, and acquaintances, but also from thousands of people I’ve never met — have been deeply moving. Your support brings happiness to any soul behind bars.
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The walls and iron bars of this detention center mean nothing when you know your cause is embraced by the people. Thank you for your solidarity — it inspires, but it also obligates. For me, this means two key things:
First, that many of you agree with me: a small group, which has long rejected our history and traditions, cannot trample our national identity in defense of narrow interests. They have no right to attack the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church, and we will not allow it.
Second, your response shows that I am not the one truly in isolation — it is the current authorities, alienated from the Armenian people and from Armenia itself, detached from our historical values.
Together, we must not only acknowledge this reality, but make it plainly visible through civil and political means.
Nikol Pashinyan and his administration have no place in Armenia’s future.
I am ready to fight for our homeland — no one else will rebuild or defend it but us. The time has come to unite around a fundamentally new force, to act as one fist.
Armenia must become a prosperous, modern, just, and secure nation — one rooted in solidarity, that genuinely protects the rights of the people of Artsakh, a truly sovereign state, a reliable ally. A nation that restores dignity and leaves behind divisiveness, internal rifts, diaspora alienation, uncertainty for our youth, repression, injustice, defeat, humiliation, poverty, and despair.
I know how to make that vision a reality. And we will do it — together.
Let us show the world what it means to be Armenian.
Together, we will move toward a new and better chapter in our history.”
