Samvel Karapetyan’s support for Church speaks volumes about his love for homeland — Elena Panina

Speaking with Alpha News, Elena Panina, Director of the Institute of International Political and Economic Strategies (RUSSTRAT), commented on the arrest of prominent Russian-Armenian businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, during the 11th International Scientific and Expert Primakov Readings Forum.

“Unfortunately, we see how Armenia is rapidly following the path of Ukraine. We know how this policy ended for Ukraine, when national interests are sacrificed for the sake of Western interests. The Armenian people are deeply confessional and the Catholicos of All Armenians enjoys enormous, enormous respect from the people. I’ve had the opportunity to engage with the current Catholicos, His Holiness Karekin II, as well as his predecessor. They are absolutely gentle people, they are spiritual leaders of their people. And therefore, that Samvel Karapetyan supported Orthodoxy, faith, and the Church in every possible way speaks volumes about his profound love for his people and his homeland, because without faith, which is the bond for the nation, the nation will fall apart,” Panina said.

“Armenians are a people who have lived through very difficult historical times. They were once scattered. There was a great Armenian kingdom. In 1915, we know there was a horrific massacre—over a million people were killed. The Armenian people survived, they preserved their culture, their language, the Church played a huge role in this,” Panina noted.

According to the expert, Armenia’s current leadership has taken a course towards destroying Armenia’s sovereignty and turning it into a colony of Western forces.

“The course taken by the current leadership of Armenia is not just a path towards the West, but a path towards the destruction of Armenia’s sovereignty and its transformation into a kind of colony of Western forces,” Panina concluded.