Ruben Hayrapetyan Discusses Andranik Kocharyan: 'Everyone Remembers How He Followed Me for Years'

On March 19, former president of the Football Federation of Armenia and businessman Ruben Hayrapetyan was interviewed by Satik Seyranian during the latest episode of her program "Pressing." Following a sensational interview where Hayrapetyan addressed the persecution he faced from the authorities, interference in his criminal case by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's assistant Anna Vardapetyan, and the recent war in Artsakh, tensions continue to rise.

Subsequently, Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Defense, made various claims about Ruben Hayrapetyan on his Facebook page. 168.am contacted the former president of the Football Federation to comment on Kocharyan's post.

“I just want to tell Bearded Ando that if he has memory loss, his family members certainly do not suffer from it. Everyone remembers how for decades he has been following me around, spinning and dreaming of getting close to me, or more precisely, that I would take control of him,” Ruben Hayrapetyan responded to Kocharyan’s assertion that in the 1990s, during his time as deputy minister of internal affairs and then deputy minister of defense, Hayrapetyan spent about four years trying to find mutual acquaintances within those ministries to gain favor and be close to his circle.

Regarding the part of Kocharyan's post where he states, “I hoped that after fleeing justice, you would at least leave the public life of Armenia since you and your political allies, led by your spiritual father Serzh Sargsyan, have long been rejected,” Hayrapetyan replied that he takes pride in the fact that the victorious yet rejected Serzh Sargsyan is his spiritual father. “I take pride in this as an Armenian man: let him think that he has a spiritual father who has become a capitulator and a traitor to Turks. Not me or Serzh Sargsyan, who has dedicated his whole life to liberating Artsakh and improving it, but Kocharyan Ando and Nikol Pashinyan should be ashamed that their whole lives will be marked by the label of traitors,” Hayrapetyan said.

Hayrapetyan noted that he understands what has thrown Andranik Kocharyan off balance. “I, Andranik Kocharyan, hope that one day I will meet you face to face and see how you are peeing yourself, just like Vagarshak Harutyunyan, who works for you,” Hayrapetyan said.

According to him, it seems that Kocharyan has not grasped the essence of the show or has deliberately avoided it. “The core of the program was an entirely different topic, and by deliberately circumventing the main theme of the interview, Andranik Kocharyan has come out with such absurd responses. His purpose, of course, is clear, but Kocharyan Ando has forgotten one thing: all of Armenia—Yerevan, Shirak, and Artsakh—knows who he is and who I am. Everyone knows what he has done overall, what activities he has carried out in his life, and what I have created and how I have lived. Ando, I should not evaluate your nonsense. Everyone's memories are fresh. As you can see, the evaluations of what you have said and done are being given, and they are not bad at all,” concluded Ruben Hayrapetyan.