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Russian-Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, leader of the “Strong Armenia” [Silnaya Armeniya] party alliance, has stated that the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan are discussing the resettlement of “300,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia.” He claimed that such a move would turn Armenia into a “Turkish-Azerbaijani enclave,” citing that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili turned the western Georgian city of Batumi into a similar enclave.
These comments were made in an interview with the Armenian media outlet Aysor in response to a question about whether “Azerbaijani businessmen can be trusted and allowed to invest in Armenia.”
Earlier, the interviewer asked Karapetyan about statements by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in which he said that the resettlement of Azerbaijanis forced to leave Armenia at the height of the conflict between the two countries, and the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh, are not being discussed within the framework of peace negotiations.
“You can be sure: if [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan manage to resettle 300,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia, they will buy land and build factories where Azerbaijanis will work. We have such an example in neighboring Georgia. Due to Saakashvili’s mistakes, Batumi has turned into something of a Turkish-Azerbaijani enclave,” Karapetyan stated.
He declared that his party would “put an end to all this” and create 300,000 jobs for Armenians.
During the interview, Karapetyan also claimed that “all decisions regarding Armenia are made in Azerbaijan” and that Pashinyan “has done everything to spoil relations with our main allies”—a reference to the steadily deteriorating relations between Armenia and Russia.
“We must maintain very friendly relations with the US, the UK, France, China, as well as our friend, Russia. Only in this way can we obtain serious guarantees from the superpowers,” Karapetyan said.
Responding to a question about the visit of Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev to Armenia on May 29, Karapetyan accused Pashinyan of avoiding asking the Azerbaijani official “all questions concerning Armenia’s interests,” such as the destruction of Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and the fate of 19 Armenians—including former Nagorno-Karabakh officials—in Azerbaijani prisons.
“When a deputy chief arrives, Nikol [Pashinyan] has no right to ask any questions; he only acts as a listener,” Karapetyan said.
According to recent public opinion polls, Karapetyan and his “Strong Armenia” alliance are poised to become the main opponents of Pashinyan and his ruling “Civil Contract” [Grajdanskiy Dogovor] party in the June parliamentary elections.
