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Police detain president of major company Tashir in Armenia

The Armenian Interior Ministry has not yet released an official comment on the situation

YEREVAN, June 18. /TASS/. Employees of the Armenian Interior Ministry’s Main Department for Combating Organized Crime have taken into custody Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist of Armenian origin, and the president and founder of the Tashir Group of Companies.

Following his arrest, Karapetyan’s supporters gathered on Nalbandyan Street, where the department is located. The Armenian Interior Ministry has not yet released an official comment on the situation.

"I will continue to stand by our Church and the Armenian people. I don’t care about them or their Electric Networks," said Karapetyan - who also owns the Electric Networks of Armenia - before getting into a car. "The people will speak out, and they’ll realize they were wrong," he added.

Karapetyan’s home was raided on Tuesday, shortly after he told reporters that "a small group <...> attacked the Armenian Church and the Armenian people." He declared that "if the politicians fail, we will respond to the campaign against the Church in our own way."

Tensions between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the clergy have intensified in recent years. On May 30, Pashinyan and his wife, Anna Hakobyan, posted a series of social media messages containing critical remarks about representatives of the Armenian Church. Relations soured further after the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Church’s supreme authority, demanded Pashinyan’s resignation in 2020 and criticized his handling of the Karabakh issue.

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