Major General Samvel Karapetyan (known by the nickname Oganovsky) denied what was written about him in a BBC publication during an interview with Aravot Daily.
“They’re doing the wrong thing by publishing something like that. There are no gunshots,” Karapetyan said in reference to the newspaper’s publication.
When asked about who ordered him to come to Yerevan during the events of March 1st, 2008, he responded, “According to the order- what am I supposed to say? You’re talking about gunshots, but no shots were fired. They can say thousands of different things. Do I have to respond to all of them? According to our order, not a single gunshot was fired. We were at the government building where there were no gunshots. We did not leave the government building.”
When asked why he came to Yerevan and stayed in the government building, he said, “I’m getting angry because we didn’t understand one another.”
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He was asked whether it was possible that he controlled the situation from the government building through phone calls, to which he responded, “I didn’t have anything to do with it. They invited me on August 15th. I spoke about what happened during my testimony. There was no order to shoot and we did not get in touch with anyone.”
According to Samvel Karapetyan, Azerbaijan most likely gave BBC such information about him. “I have a lot to think about. I believe that our neighbors gave that information to them. I don’t believe that Armenians would give out such information because it isn’t true. Only our neighbors would’ve done something like that. Whenever I analyze this situation, that’s the only conclusion I can come up with.”
