Op-ed by Karen Harutyunyan, editor-in-chief
Today, shortly after midnight, the Armenian court ordered the two-month pre-trial detention of Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan. The search of his home, his arrest, and the subsequent detention all took place in less than 48 hours, effectively under the direct guidance of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
How it unfolded
On Tuesday morning, Karapetyan gave an interview expressing support for the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Catholicos, whom Prime Minister Pashinyan has effectively declared war on and seeks to dethrone. “If the politicians fail, then we will intervene in our own way,” Karapetyan said. Pashinyan’s fury toward the Catholicos had flared after the latter attended a Geneva conference in late May focused on the rights of Artsakh Armenians.
Karapetyan’s remarks were met with immediate retaliation. Pashinyan launched a barrage of Facebook posts full of threats and language unbecoming of a national leader.
Within hours of the Prime Minister’s public outburst, police raided Karapetyan’s Yerevan residence. By early Wednesday morning, he had been taken into custody.
Pashinyan then fired the Director of the National Security Service (NSS), reportedly because the latter had refused to involve NSS agents in the search. Pashinyan claimed the dismissal was because the director “had worked five years and deserved a rest.”
Karapetyan has been charged with “making public calls to seize power.”
The Prime Minister also threatened to nationalize the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), a utility company owned by Karapetyan.
On the same day, Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission fined ENA $25,000 for violations.
The Food Safety Inspection Body launched a sweeping audit of Karapetyan’s “Tashir Pizza” franchise, resulting in the closure of several outlets.
In parliament on Wednesday, Pashinyan claimed that the inspection of ENA had been ordered “a month ago” due to customer complaints, an apparent attempt to justify the sudden and synchronized state pressure retroactively.
Then, past midnight, a court ordered Karapetyan’s detention for two months.
So what?
This chain of events is enough on its own to draw the obvious conclusion: Pashinyan’s attack on Karapetyan and his businesses is politically motivated. Law enforcement and regulatory bodies are not acting according to the law—they are following the Prime Minister’s orders. Private enterprise in Armenia is not protected from political retaliation. The investment climate is far from favorable.
As my colleagues rightly note in a recent Democracy Watch article, Pashinyan’s total control over law enforcement and other state bodies, and their arbitrary use, can easily be turned against any critic of the government. As the 2026 parliamentary elections approach, this poses a grave threat to Armenia’s already fragile democratic trajectory. There are no meaningful checks and balances within the ruling system, the political opposition is impotent, most civil servants and diplomats are unwilling or unable to push back, and large segments of civil society have been co-opted by Pashinyan’s regime. The few genuinely independent media outlets are barely surviving under a storm of propaganda and disinformation.
Add to this the Prime Minister’s deeply troubling track record: his 2019 call to blockade the judiciary, the forced resignation of the Supreme Judicial Council’s chair via SMS, and a litany of other arbitrary acts against opponents.
With each such move, Pashinyan fuses his personal survival with the machinery of state. He is clinging to power not to lead, but to evade accountability.
Most importantly, Pashinyan knows full well that he will inevitably be held responsible for the loss of Artsakh and catastrophic collapse of Armenia’s security, brought on by his reckless foreign policy.
His consolidation of power through authoritarian methods, and persecution of political opponents, casts a long shadow over Armenia’s democratic future. The country now stands at a crossroads, where civil liberties, economic progress, and national security are all under simultaneous threat. The Karapetyan case is not an exception, it’s a glaring symptom of a systemic problem.
If Armenian society fails to unite and demand real democratic reform, Pashinyan’s regime will not only deepen the internal crisis but also place statehood itself at risk, especially in a context where external threats remain immediate and real.
