The journalist, Hakob Karapetian, says he was ambushed and assaulted by a masked man on Friday evening more than two weeks after criticizing local government officials on social media.
“I was bleeding and now have injuries all over my body,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
The Armenian Interior Ministry reported that police arrested on Monday “one of the participants of the incident.” It did not identify the man or give other details. The Investigative Committee said, for its part, that it has launched a criminal inquiry into the violence blamed by Karapetian on Avet Babayan, the acting head of a municipality department on public order.
Late last month, Karapetian reposted an RFE/RL report about a Yerevan commuter who claimed to have been unfairly fined by municipality officials acting as public transport controllers. He commented that the incident was the inevitable result of having “narrow-minded and incompetent rulers” in the Armenian capital.
The journalist, who previously worked as former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian’s spokesman, said that Babayan contacted and swore at him on Facebook shortly afterwards. He said the official also promised to have him beaten up during their subsequent phone conversation.
Babayan refused to comment on the incident on Tuesday, saying that he is too busy to talk to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Speaking to Civilnet.am earlier in the day, he denied ever communicating with Karapetian. The latter countered, however, that he has shared a screenshot of their online correspondence with investigators.
A spokesman for Mayor Tigran Avinian, who appointed Babayan to his current position, said he will look into the allegations. Karapetian maintains that he alerted the mayor’s office about the alleged insults and threats before the assault.
The Yerevan-based Committee to Protect the Freedom of Speech reported two violent attacks on Armenian journalists in April-June alone. They both were carried out by law-enforcement officers. The watchdog also recorded 36 instances of harassment or intimidation of reporters, up from 25 such cases in the same period of 2024.
