Samvel Karapetyan: Armenian authorities have driven Diaspora investment to zero

Businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan has issued another statement from the detention facility via his legal team. The full statement is provided below.

“What the Current Authorities Have Accomplished

In a short period of time, the current Armenian leadership has succeeded in entirely erasing the Diaspora’s presence from the life of the Republic of Armenia.

It is absurd that our compatriots from France, the Netherlands, Russia and other countries are being denied entry into Armenia and are declared persona non grata. In just a short time, they have managed to reduce to a minimum the patriotic aspirations of Diaspora-based entrepreneurs who wished to invest in their homeland and create jobs.

Yet the Armenian Diaspora is not only a powerful source of economic and business potential, it is also a major lobbying force globally. All of this is also a consequence of the arrogance of a pensioner from a small group meddling in the internal affairs of other countries through his NGOs.

At times, there is an unsettling impression that the Diaspora does not need Armenia, and Armenia, in turn, does not need the Diaspora. As a result, the country has lost its biggest and most valuable ally for development. The country has almost lost its most precious and priceless capital – the Armenian Diaspora. They’ve driven the country to a point where Armenia receives zero investment from it.

We need to restore the Diaspora as one of the key pillars of Armenia.

We shall fight.

To be continued…”