Pashinyan says Karapetyan offered to free him in exchange for ending 2018 protests

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that during his detention in April 2018, then–Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan indirectly proposed releasing him if he agreed to stop the revolution.

Pashinyan said Karapetyan was speaking on behalf of then-President Serzh Sargsyan and suggested that Karapetyan could lead the country as a compromise figure.

Pashinyan said he rejected the offer, insisting on Sargsyan’s immediate resignation, and denied claims that he was ever offered the post of deputy prime minister.