Karine Gumashyan, accused of espionage in favor of Azerbaijan, tried to involve her son in espionage activities, the publicized record of testimony of Gumashyan’s son, officer Tigran Karapetyan, says.   

In his words, his mother left for Turkey, telling the family she worked at a shoe factory. First, only household issues were discussed during the communication via the Internet.

But later she asked about the location of the military unit where her son served. Following this, Gumashyan said she had to seriously talk to Karapetyan, but not on phone. She promised to arrive in Armenia in several days and visit her son’s military unit.  

She came to the unit with a woman named Karine, who was from Armenia’s Vanadzor city. Gumashyan said in Turkey she had got acquainted with a benefactor from France, who wanted to help Armenia, specifically the army, at the same time making sure the money will serve correct purposes.

For this purpose, he needed to learn several things, for instance, what the Armenian soldiers eat, etc. Gumashyan brought a telephone and showed him a correspondence with Arman on his behalf. Later Karapetyan understood this was an Azeri, who was gathering information on Armenian army, the witness noted.

According to him, the relations with her have now mother spoiled, since she was going to divorce his father and take the younger son to Turkey.

Karine’s other son, David Karapetyan, who lived with his mother in Turkey for a certain time, working at a shoe factory and studying gold-work, noted in the testimony that Rafik Papoyan from Vanadzor, who is also a defendant in this case, lived in the same building as they.   

In his words, it was Rafik who introduced the benefactor to her mother. “And Mother told him my brother was an officer. He promised to help us if my brother provided information on the army,” the witness noted, adding that his mother liked the man. They began to meet and after each meeting he gave her $200.

The Karapetyan brothers refused to give testimony and respond to questions in the court. Moreover, they stated that the investigators didn’t notify them on their right not to give testimonies against their mother.

The next session will be held on March 18.