In a surprise video message circulated late on Wednesday, Karapetian charged that Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive and resulting takeover of Karabakh were “made possible by the Armenian authorities’ cowardice and treason.”
The retired general also blamed them for Azerbaijan’s arrests of about a dozen former and current leaders of Karabakh, including Armenian-born billionaire Ruben Vardanyan. He alleged that Pashinian himself asked Baku to jail Vardanyan because he regards the latter as a formidable political opponent.
Karapetian branded Pashinian’s political team as “a bunch of cowards and amateurs” who have also put Armenia’s independence and territorial integrity at serious risk. He said he has therefore set up a “political movement to liberate Armenia from internal and external enemies.”
“In the near future, you will see and feel the seriousness of my intentions,” he said in what was his first public statement in almost two years. He gave no details of his planned push for regime change.
Karapetian, 57, had served as chief of Armenian military intelligence until being fired in 2016 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. Pashinian appointed him as his national security adviser shortly after coming to power in May 2018. The premier promoted him to the post of defense minister in August 2021 only to dismiss him three months later.
Karapetian claimed that he was sacked because he ordered the Armenian army to resist Azerbaijani attempts to seize more Armenian territory and visited Karabakh in his ministerial capacity.
The Armenian government did not react to the allegations on Thursday. Senior lawmakers from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party were likewise reluctant to comment on them at a news conference in Yerevan. Still, they made no secret of their contempt for the ex-minister who was for years thought to be a figure loyal to Pashinian.
“This question offends my common sense,” one of them, Arman Yeghoyan, said when asked for comment. He insisted that “nobody could be sacked for protecting Armenia’s borders.”
Another pro-government lawmaker, Artur Hovannisian, said that the Armenian media should not take Karapetian seriously because he has “offered his services to a concrete center.” It was not clear whether Hovannisian referred to Russia, whose relationship with Pashinian’s administration has been rapidly deteriorating.
In his Facebook video, Karapetian signaled support for Armenia’s continued close ties with Russia while effectively acknowledging the failure of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Karabakh.
“Together with our current authorities, the enemy is trying to redirect our national anger towards our Russian brothers,” he said before urging Moscow to “more resolutely counter attempts to destroy the Armenian people and our statehood.”
Significantly, Karapetian recorded and posted the same message in Russian. He did not clarify whether he is currently in Armenia.