Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has informed Hetq that it has launched criminal proceedings regarding the September 12 attack on journalist Hakob Karapetyan, who served as press secretary of former Yerevan mayor Hayk Marutyan.

On September 12, 2025, at around 9:00 PM, Hakob Karapetyan left his workplace on Parpetsi Street in Yerevan and was confronted by a masked individual who began to beat him.

Karapetyan tells Hetq that he tried to defend himself and attempted to remove the mask worn by his attacker but failed. Karapetyan suffered injuries to his head and face.

The journalist ties the attack to his social media post criticizing local government officials two weeks earlier.

Karapetyan, in an August 27 Facebook post, criticized Yerevan Municipality inspectors for fining a female bus passenger, claiming she hadn’t purchased a ticket to ride the bus. The woman, however, had paid for the ride.  

Karapetyan reproached the inspectors for being heavy-handed and incompetent and for filming their fining of the woman without her consent.

“This is what it means to have narrow-minded and incompetent managers. They turn your life into a daily struggle against the mistakes made by ignorant people in suits and trousers,” Karapetyan wrote.

Karapetyan says that an individual with the username “Avetik Babayan” responded to his post that same evening and demanded that the journalist justify  his disrespectful comments targeting municipal workers.

Karapetyan says this was followed by insults and threats in voice messages and texts in Latin letters, mentioning his family members, friends, profession, current and former colleagues, including former Yerevan mayor Hayk Marutyan. The journalist says he was then blocked so that he could not respond.

Karapetyan says he found out that the insulting and threatening messages were sent to him by the acting head of the Yerevan Municipality’s Public Order Service.

The journalist then called two high-ranking officials of the Yerevan Municipality, one of whom is directly responsible for coordinating staff-related issues, and told them about what had happened.

After not receiving any response from the municipality for two days, Karapetyan called Avetik Babayan’s work phone number and gave the clerk his phone number and asked him to call.

Karapetyan tells Hetq that Babayan called him a few hours later. “Tell me where you are, I’ll come and break your legs,” Karapetyan says Babayan told him.

The journalist says he tried to convince Babayan that, as a municipal official, it would be better if he focused on his duties rather than issuing threats,  

“I consider the incident to be over,” says Karapetyan.

Hetq has contacted Yerevan mayoral spokesperson Hayk Kostanyan to ascertain if the municipality has taken any steps regarding the behavior of Yerevan Municipality official Avetik Babayan, as claimed by Karapetyan.

Kostanyan replied that the municipality is looking into the matter and has nothing to say right now.