Hakob Karapetyan, a critic of the Yerevan authorities, said he was attacked by a masked individual, and has accused a municipal employee of being behind the attack. The incident followed his public criticism of the city administration, after which a high-ranking official insulted him and threatened to ‘break his legs’.
Karapetyan is a teammate of Hayk Marutyan, Yerevan’s former mayor and former ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. During Marutyan’s term, Karapetyan served as the municipality’s spokesperson. Karapetyan is also a journalist, a former editor of a fact-checking media outlet, and a media expert.
Karapetyan claimed to have been attacked in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday.
He said that the incident took place as he was leaving his current workplace in the evening, when it was already dark, although he did not mention the exact date. He said he had been attacked by a ‘masked individual’, who suddenly approached and began striking him ‘without saying a word’. Karapetyan said he tried to defend himself, but due to the element of surprise, he wasn’t able to react effectively and ended up with ‘some injuries’.
Around two weeks prior to the incident, Karapetyan publicly and harshly criticised the Yerevan municipality’s handling of ongoing public transport reforms, particularly over a widely publicised case in which municipal inspectors fined a woman on public transport for allegedly not paying her fare, even though she had.
According to Karapetyan, that same evening, late at night, a person on social media named Avetik Babayan contacted him, ‘using filthy and disrespectful language, and began to “demand answers” for what I had written’.
Karapetyan said that he ‘tried to explain to him, in clear and accessible language, that it’s not appropriate to speak to strangers in such a tone’, which Babayan responded to with more threats and insults, ‘mentioning my family members, friends, profession, current and former colleagues — including former Mayor Hayk Marutyan’. Karapetyan said that Babayan blocked him without giving him the opportunity to respond.
Looking Babayan up online, Karapetyan discovered that he serves as the acting head of the Public Order Service of the Yerevan Municipality. He contacted two ‘high-ranking’ officials from the municipality, ‘one of whom has the direct responsibility of coordinating personnel affairs’ to report the incident. Having failed to receive any information, Karapetyan directly contacted Babayan’s office.
‘Hours later, Babayan calls and starts threatening me again (“Tell me where you are, I'll come and break your legs,” etc.). Again, using accessible expressions, I try to make him understand that he is an official and it would be better if he went about his duties. I consider the incident over with this’, Karapetyan wrote.
Weeks after the correspondence and phone calls with Babayan, Karapetyan was physically attacked — an incident he believes is directly connected to those earlier events. He reported the case to law enforcement authorities, submitting evidence including the threats and surveillance camera footage.
Karapetyan insists that all of this had likely happened with at least the silent consent of the authorities, adding that it is unacceptable for people to be attacked by ‘a rabid dog’ simply for expressing public criticism, calling it an ‘act of persecution and intimidation’ connected to his public activities.
Karapetyan received words of solidarity from colleagues online.
On Monday, CivilNet reached out to Babayan, who claimed that he did not know Karapetyan and that ‘there has been no contact with such a person, especially in that tone’.
In turn, Babayan conditioned Karapetyan’s report with political subtext, saying that Karapetyan ‘is being misdirected. I have nothing to do with all of this’.
On Tuesday, RFE/RL reported that one person had been detained as part of a criminal case.
RFE/RL cited the Investigative Committee as saying it was investigating the incident as a physical assault against Karapetyan. The Interior Ministry reported that, aside from arresting one suspect, the ‘car that took the masked person to the scene of the incident was also found and moved to a special guarded area’.
The Yerevan municipality has refrained from giving comments to RFE/RL regarding the incident.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
